Peri-Urbanization and Land Use Fragmentation in Mexico City. Informality, Environmental Deterioration, and Ineffective Urban Policy

Abstract

There is a great deal of concern over the scattered, fragmented expansion of cities, particularly in developing countries. This expansion accelerates the peri-urbanization processes expressed in a range of land uses, often with a concentration of the poor in peripheries with an acute shortage of services coupled with profound land-use changes, with far-reaching environmental impacts. The urban periphery is a transition zone, where the urban gradually merges into the rural landscape. It has become heterogeneous from a social, environmental, commercial, and service point of view, reproducing a model of metropolitan inequity with marked socioeconomic inequalities between the center and the periphery. The way these territories are managed is quite far from the road to sustainability. This article seeks to provide an updated analysis of the dynamics of urban expansion and land-use changes on the southern periphery of Mexico City (CDMX) in the Conservation Area (CA), to determine the extent to which a socially segregated, environmentally unsustainable model of urban fragmentation has been reinforced. It also discusses the regulatory, normative framework established in the CA, finding that it has been deficient and implemented in piecemeal fashion. It concludes that local government has failed to provide solutions to reconcile the protection of ecological conservation areas with the needs of the poor in a peri-urban area, thereby reproducing social inequalities in the city. In addition, CDMX land use policy has been ineffective in controlling the expansion of informal human settlements in peri-urban areas with high ecological value.

Why local is not enough! Constrains for adaptive governance in peri-urban areas. A case study in Mexico City

“…Instead of only responding to drivers such as the relative increase in the economic value of land for amenity over agricultural use, and the availability of publiclyand privately-provided infrastructure (Darbas et al, 2010), MA is mainly shaped by rural landscapes and agricultural production activities, including the exchange of goods, activities or flows, and interaction between the borough of MA and the city. The case of the CZ in CDMX, in which MA is situated, is a clear example of a fragmented peri-urban expansion process in an area with high ecological value (Aguilar et al, 2022).…”

“…In this paper, we use the governance challenges of a periurban area in CDMX as a case study to illustrate and broaden the research agenda required to consider the use of the adaptive management approach in peri-urban contexts. The study zone selected is the borough of Milpa Alta (MA), a territory of high ecological value subject to strict conservation policies given its natural characteristics and location in a large conservation zone (CZ) in southern CMDX (Aguilar et al, 2022). Using the livelihoods approach (Beringer and Kaewsuk, 2018) and specific adaptive capacities (Eakin et al, 2014), the research data presented here comes from a survey applied in December 2015 and from interviews and participatory workshops carried out in July 2017.…”

Peri-urbanization, dynamics, and challenges in developing countries towards sustainable urban growth - Special Section Editorial

“…They identified the causes of peri-urbanization as related to population growth, immigration, second and third economic sector workers, and distance to urban areas and highways. Aguilar et al (2022) carry out an updated analysis of the dynamics of urban sprawl and land use changes in a conservation area (CA) located in the southern periphery of Mexico City to determine the extent to which socially segregated and environmentally unsustainable models of urban fragmentation have been reinforced. The normative and regulatory framework established in the CA was also analysed, and it was found that the CA has been deficient in that it has been implemented in a piecemeal fashion.…”

Urban growth in peri-urban, rural and urban areas: Mexico City

“…A large proportion of this urban expansion generally occurs in peri-urban areas, which are transition zones where urban and rural activities overlap and where rural landscape characteristics are quickly modified by industrial, commercial or residential land uses (Heider et al 2018;Pribadi & Pauleit 2015;Tian 2015;Winarso et al 2015). This land-use transformation is known as peri-urbanisation, and over time the land uses of these areas are converted to residential, commercial or service uses, until they completely lose their rurality (Aguilar et al 2022;Coq-Huelva & Asián-Chaves 2019;Geneletti et al 2017).…”