Environmental sustainability agenda: Metropolitan Area of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

Abstract

Human settlements worldwide have experienced environmental problems as a result of population growth, an increase in productive activities and low financial capacity of municipalities to provide adequate infrastructure and public services. At the local level, problems of water, soil and air pollution, as well as, land use changes have arisen due to the expansion of urban agglomerations. Regionally, there have been negative impacts on watersheds, ecosystems and biodiversity. Globally, the world is experiencing climate change, the reduction of the ozone layer and the increase of natural disasters. The situation has posed a challenge in terms of urban and regional planning, especially for metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities. The purpose of this study is to present an alternative to integrate environmental sustainability into metropolitan planning in Mexico, specifically applied to the Metropolitan Area of Mexicali, Baja California. Therefore the Environmental Sustainability Agenda has focused on three objectives: first, identifying the weaknesses of the existing environmental and human settlements legal framework; second, developing an environmental assessment and; third, designing policies, strategies and indicators to implement institutional monitoring of environmental programmes. The results were obtained by conducting surveys, regional community workshops, and reviewing previous research. Lastly, this study concludes with six sectoral programs: water, air, solid wastes, green areas, soils and physical pollution and six transversal Sustainable Development and Planning VI 267programs that have effects on environmental education, health, climate change, environmental management and the legal framework.

Assessing the Influence of Socioeconomic Status and Air Pollution Levels on the Public Perception of Local Air Quality in a Mexico-US Border City

“…It has a population of 689,775 inhabitants [ 44 ], dry weather and precipitation of around 75 mm/year [ 45 ]. One of its leading environmental problems is air pollution [ 46 ]. It is ranked as the ninth most polluted place on the American continent due to the high concentration of PM 10 [ 4 ].…”

Stated Benefits from Urban Afforestation in an Arid City: A Contingent Valuation in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

“…Its climate is arid, with winter rainfall (around 75mm annually), average high temperatures in summer (around 42.2ºC), and average high temperatures in winter (21.1ºC) (Cueto et al, 2013). Air pollution in Mexicali is caused by natural sources, emissions from the transport sector, electric power generation, industry, and unpaved streets (Rojas-Caldelas et al, 2013). Also, mineral dust resuspension and prevailing wind speed and direction (dispersion, long-range transport) are associated with high PM10 concentrations (Choi et al, 2006;Carmona et al, 2015) Fig 1.…”