From a current population near 19 million, the Mexico City metropolis may exceed 27 million by the year 2000. The many problems associated with this massive level of urban concentration include severe levels of air pollution, paralyzing congestion, and increasing costs of urban services provision. Meanwhile, the nation's periphery continues to suffer from severe economic and social underdevelopment relative to the nation's capital. Regional policies and plans to address these problems have been dominated by the concept of decentralizing the nation's urban-industrial system: i.e., dispersing urban and industrial growth from the metropolitan core to the national periphery. Mexican regional policy makers and planners have failed to adequately evaluate these proposed policies and plans for decentralization in a critical and rigorous manner. This evaluation must be made in terms of three critical criteria. The first is effectiveness: will a proposed plan genuinely return the benefits which are expected or hoped for? The second is efficiency: among several possible planning alternatives, which will return the greatest social benefits for the smallest social costs? The third is equity: which regional interest groups will be affected, and how will the costs and benefits be distributed among these groups? Research is based on three principal data sources: Mexico's National Development Plan: 1983-1988, which has predominantly determined the nation's sectoral, social, and regional policies during the de la Madrid administration; a plan prepared for the quasi-governmental Commission for the Conurbation of the Nation's Center, for urban-industrial deconcentration from Mexico City into the nation's Central Region; and extensive fieldwork in Mexico City and several other Mexican urban centers, concerned with the actual practice of regional economic development in Mexico today. Based on this research, a regionally disaggregated cost-benefit framework is proposed for policy and planning evaluation, and particularly to facilitate conflict resolution, negotiation, and other forms of adjustment among the many powerful interest groups which compete for scarce regional development resources.

The word "vecindad" in Spanish means neighborhood, but the word is also used to describe a dwelling form. The vecindad is usually known as a row of one-room dwellings surrounding an open space or patio. This kind of dwelling form exists in most Latin American countries as well as in Spain, however the word "vecindad" is used exclusively in Mexico. This dwelling form existed in Spain under the name of "corrales" and it was brought to Mexico in the XVI century with the Conquest of 1521. Initially, vecindades were built as multi-family tenements to rent to low-income artisans or workers in Mexico. There are two kinds: the multi-storied ones which were built within the Traza, which was the first design of Mexico City by the Spaniards; and the one-storied buildings built in the Indian barrios located on the periphery of the Traza. / While each vecindad is different, they share the same elements such as the zahuan (entrance), the patio, the dwellings and the accesorias (commercial spaces). The number and dimensions of these elements vary depending on the characteristics of each vecindad. / From the XVI century until the early XX century, vecindades comprised the majority of the housing stock in Mexico City. In the 1940's, due to the ideas of Functionalism, vecindades ceased to be built and were relegated as an old and traditional dwelling form in the center of the city. / This thesis presents the origin, evolution and present condition of vecindades within the Traza of Mexico City. Their adaptability to fulfill social, cultural and political circumstances throughout the history of Mexico City reveals their importance as the city's main collective urban dwelling form.

No description available.

Measurements of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) are reported from recent airborne and surface based field campaigns. The Southeast Texas Tetroon Study (SETTS) was a project within the TEXAQS 2005 field campaign, conducting airborne measurements that investigated the nocturnal Lagrangian transport of industrial plumes downwind of the Houston, Texas metropolitan area. On the evening of July 26-27, a polluted air mass with elevated mass 43, mass 45 and mass 57 VOCs along with elevated O3, CO, and NOx was tracked from the Houston metropolitan area to an area northwest of Shreveport, LA, a distance of over 200 miles. This campaign demonstrated that the PTRMS is capable of tracking a VOC plume over large distances and these measurements indicate that transport of VOCs, particularly light alkenes and their oxidation products, out of the Houston metropolitan area may need to be considered by areas downwind of the Houston area when they are determining how to attain their air quality goals. During the MILAGRO field campaign in March 2006 VOCs were measured by PTR-MS instrumentation on a rooftop in the urban mixed residential and industrial area north northeast of downtown Mexico City. Diurnal profiles of weekday and weekend/holiday aromatic VOC concentrations clearly show the influence of vehicular traffic during the morning rush hour time period and during the afternoon hours although a separate late afternoon peak is not seen. Plumes of toluene elevated as much as 216 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) and ethyl acetate elevated as much as 183 ppbv above background levels were observed during the late night and early morning hours. These plumes indicate the probability of significant industrial sources of these two compounds in the region. The high levels of toluene measured by our PTR-MS exceed levels that would be predicted by examination of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) emission inventory and when these VOC measurements are integrated with measurements conducted throughout the MCMA a better understanding of both the overall spatial pattern of VOCs in the MCMA as well as its variability will be attained.

The demarcations of territorial urban isms have not embedded within themselves with the potential to negotiate in the city-to-come. Transpositions CU considers the UNAM's Ciudad Universitaria (Mexico City) as a point of departure regarding the question of a delineated project's continuation within a city or larger national/political context. Do we abandon wholly past modalities or does our work operate, even if parasitically so, as an extension of present configurations and urban/infrastructural situations, anticipating the next move and abandoning the stabilization of histories and subject positions?

Safety of a building's occupants is of primary concern in the design of a building. However, geophysical hazards such as earthquakes, still pose dangers to occupants of buildings. In an earthquake-resistant structure, even during a moderate shake, objects which are part of non-structural systems, accelerated by the sudden motion of the building, can hurt building occupants and cause damage to their property. The adoption of simple earthquake precautionary measures, could almost entirely eliminate this hazard. The adoption of these actions is the responsibility of occupants themselves, as part of their response to earthquake risk. / Previous personal experience with earthquakes has been identified to be a major component of response to hazard risk. This response relates to the incorporation of earthquake risk into daily life, by the adoption of earthquake precautionary measures, which could make a substantial difference in reducing loss of life and damage to property during an earthquake. Therefore, the investigation of occupants living patterns in relation to earthquake safety gives an insight on their vulnerability and level of adoption of earthquake precautionary measures, particularly in a city constantly exposed to ground shakes such as Mexico City. This research project concentrates in the study of the internal layout characteristics of the dwellings in a social housing complex built after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

Thesis--Universität Bonn.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.