Linking Flood Susceptibility Mapping and Governance in Mexico for Flood Mitigation: A Participatory Approach Model

Abstract

In many countries of the world, floods continue to cause extensive damage to people and properties. This is also the case of Mexico, where meteorological phenomena cause flooding every year. In order to mitigate continuous losses and damages, crucial tools like hazard maps are essential for prevention. This review article analyzes the main reasons for the shortcomings on disasters caused by floods in Mexico. We argue that strong linking between the realm of technical hazard mappings and local governance as an integrated approach to manage disasters can be a basis for a new prevention policy in Mexico. This consideration is achieved through the description of the available information on the meteorological events that have caused major damage in recent years and the analysis of the interventions carried out at decision-making level by the government and the national civil protection system. The application that hazard maps have in the world and their usefulness is also discussed. From the analysis carried out it emerges that the inefficiency of the system in preventing damage caused by floods in Mexico is due to both the lack of high-level expertise in hazard maps design and the lack of their use in decision-making policies at the local level.

A Machine Learning Ensemble Approach Based on Random Forest and Radial Basis Function Neural Network for Risk Evaluation of Regional Flood Disaster: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta, China

“…The concept of modern flood management is an important part of the improvement of water resources management planning and implementation within the basin, which needs to coordinate the formulation of policies and strategies at the national, river basin, provincial and sub-river basin levels [65]. The Netherlands, Mexico and other countries are actively exploring new models of multilevel integrated flood management [66,67]. The flood control should adhere to the concept of multiscenario, multidimensional and multifactor coordinated development of the society-economy-ecology.…”

Governance Assessment of the Flood’s Infrastructure Policy in San Pedro Cholula, Mexico: Potential for a Leapfrog to Water Sensitive

“…Exposure to floods has increased in Mexico [35]. Due to its geographical position, Mexico is subject to extreme weather phenomena such as a storm or tropical cyclones that provoke destructive floods every year [1]. However, multi-functional infrastructure has only been constructed recently.…”

“…Urban flood recurrences have been increasing in the world due to various factors such as climate change, population growth, changes in land use and aging or inadequate infrastructures [1]. Due to climate change, it is expected that storms, followed by floods increase over time [2].…”

Effect of Urban Development in Risk of Floods in Veracruz, Mexico

“…Urban floods are one of the most important hydrometeorological risks faced by urban areas [6][7][8][9] and their impacts affect a large percentage of the population and the economic activities given the tendency for people to live in cities [10][11][12][13][14]. Various studies [10,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] consider that the increase in the frequency of intense storms is directly responsible for the occurrence of more urban floods. However, concentrating only on the effect of the meteorological hazards [11,22,23] would reduce the problem to a "naturalistic" focus on natural disasters.…”