Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The rational use of natural resources makes it necessary to identify and analyze their spatial - temporal condition. There are several techniques to generate information on this subject based on the capabilities of the analysis of a geographic information system (GIS). Considering that the ecosystems and the tree species that compose them are developed in geographic areas with similar environmental requirements, techniques based on the analysis of the information have been developed to look for similar biotic and abiotic conditions. Despite the advantages it represents in saving time and resources the Homogeneous Response Areas (HRA), based on Map algebra has been used in a limited way in Mexico in the evaluation of forest area. The ARH are based on the concept of extrapolation, they allow to use information from easy access areas to areas of difficult access. This can be done in two ways, in both the information of a first ARH is used to estimate a phenomenon or variable in a second ARH. In the first option the results are not validated; in the second a sampling of low intensity is made in the second ARH considering that access to it is difficult. In large areas the mapping of forest areas are required to improve the results of classification using methodologies that consider the information available. The objective of the work was to determine Homogeneous Response Areas (HRA) of natural forest vegetation in the central-northern region of Mexico. To determine the distribution of six classes (types) of vegetation, the following forests were used as the main variable: oak forest, oak-pine forest, pine forest, pine-oak forest, tropical deciduous forest and tropical semi-evergreen forest, with them two topographical variables –exposition and altitude- were analyzed.  In the first variable five classes were considered: Zenit, North, East, South and West, and on the second seven intervals of altitude were considered, in meters above sea level (msnm): 0 - 460, 461 - 921, 922 - 1382, 1383 - 1843, 1844 - 2,304, 2,305 - 2,765 and 2,766 - 3,048). In the same way eight types of soil were considered: Xerosol, Litosol, Regosol, Rendzina, Vertisol, Feozem, Chernozem, Luvisol. To determine the ARH, expressions were generated from the combination of the aforementioned classes. In total, 2,016 combinations were developed. Most of the surfaces determined for each type of vegetation were produced as a result of five combinations, in which maps were generated. As a result of the analysis, the pine forest was located mainly in the Feozem soil type and in an altitude range of 2,305 to 2,765 meters above sea level, the pine-oak forest, in S exposure, between 1,383 and 2,304 meters above sea level, the oak forest was located between 922 to 1,843 meters above sea level, the oak-pine forest from 1,383 to 2,304 meters above sea level, tropical deciduous forest in an altitude range of 0 to 921 meters above sea level, with types of lithosol and rendzina soil and tropical semi-evergreen forest was located SE, from 0 to 921 meters above sea level. To validate the results, information was used from 42 sampling clusters of the National Forestry and Soils Inventory 2004 - 2007. A confusion matrix was generated and the Kappa index was calculated, resulting in a Kappa index of 0.886 with respect to the 0.9 presented by the matrix of confusion.The combination of the four variables used in the present study allows to define forest areas adequately and  in a reliable way. An important aspect to consider  in the definition of ARH is the selection and number of variables that will be used to make up the zoning. Although it is possible to include variables such as precipitation, temperature or slope to determine if these influence in obtaining better results, the increase in the number of variables implies an increase in the number of possible combinations. For the six types of vegetation, areas of easy and difficult access were located. In the former it is possible to obtain a representative sample and to estimate forest variables in the second type.

The confluence of mining, an activity which by nature permanently transforms the landscape, and conservation, which seeks to preserve or restore natural or self-sustaining production systems, presents itself as a challenge for environmental and land-use policy. In Mexico the prevailing environmental legal and regulatory framework allows for mining to be practiced within certain kinds of natural protected areas. It is however unknown where and what kinds of mining are effectively active throughout the Mexico’s federal system of natural protected areas.This paper is the first study regarding the regulatory framework, spatial distribution, nature and scale of operation of mining activities within Mexico’s federally-managed natural protected areas. We survey those FNPA in which mining is permissible and characterize mining activity in each area in terms of mineral type, scale of operation and status. We then discuss the ways zoning schemes allow mining in these NPAs and possible implications in regard to conservation.We find that 30 of 177 FNPAs explicitly permit mining; in all but seven of these some sort of mining activity was identified varying in type, scale and status. Notably, large-scale open-pit metallic mines exist in two FNPAs, while large-scale non-metallic mines are present in four. Exploration projects and smaller operations of both metallic and non-metallic minerals exist in other FNPAs. We further discuss the implications of these results for land-use and conservation policy.

  This paper proposes a regionalisation of tourism in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. This is done by weighing up the functional ranking of the main state tourist hubs, the geographical distribution of natural and cultural resources for tourism in this part of Mexico and the regional accessibility of these places assessed by the analysis of the state road network. This procedure led us to establish two major research findings: first, a hierarchical set of tourist regions within the state and, second, a cognitive platform on to which support a proposal for planning and rationalizing the tourism space in Oaxaca. 

The lack of a public policy based on scientific and traditional knowledge, oriented to the integral management of the territory is intrinsically expressed in the construction of risk, and therefore in the increase of the occurrence of disasters. Although in the last three decades there have been some advances in terms of civil protection in Mexico, it is necessary to conduct a critical review and evaluation of the National Civil Protection System and the existing institutional framework within the three orders of government, to determine role and functionality, as well as its effectiveness and relevance, in order to analyze its possible transformation into a System or National Coordination of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRM). The implementation of such system should be based on five normative axes; efficiency and equity, integrality, transversality, co-responsibility and accountability. IDRM should be understood as a complex systematic process consisting of a series of decisions, actions and activities, as well as a transversal coordination between the different institutional and social actors, to understand and transform the needs and weaknesses expressed in the different aspects of vulnerability and exposure, in specific responses and collective solutions, whose main objective is the deconstruction of risk. Inevitably, IDRM requires a foundation directed towards the reduction of vulnerabilities as a strategic axis of diagnosis, laws, programs and co-management of government and society, where safeguarding human life is privileged, along with the improvement of the quality of life of the population and its integral development, within a framework of respect for human rights and, consequently, with a gender perspective. Based on the principles of the IDRM developed and agreed upon at the international level, this document contains a series of recommendations that were discussed by a group of academicians and put into consideration of the candidates for the Presidency of Mexico and those candidates of popular election at the Federal, State and Municipal level in June 2018, as well as to the President-elected Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the next members of his cabinet, head of the cross-cutting areas related to disaster prevention. Within the sphere of IDRM, the same conception of the General Law of Civil Protection of 2012, poses significant challenges of coordination and institutional, administrative, regulatory and financial reforms, as well as a reconceptualization that could lead to its efficient implementation as a Public Policy. The latter must have a binding cross-sectoral character, in and between the different levels of government and be regulated under the axes of efficiency and equity, integrality, transversality, co-responsibility and accountability. For this, the reduction of institutional vulnerability is unavoidable. The transformation of the current National Civil Protection System into a National System for the IDRM, is raised through 55 considerations and requires the support of the Federal Government to establish new bases, learning from the most valuable elements of the generated experiences and focus on the production of welfare conditions of the population, considering as determining factors for the reduction of social vulnerability. It is a long-term research task, which must begin with the contributions of sciences and social, natural disciplines, as well as engineering and technology, in a sphere of rigorous assessment of its contemporary complexity, from an integral perspective, and therefore, of transdisciplinary work. Under this perspective, the territory is a fundamental factor in the processes of assessment of social vulnerability as it determines to a large extent the scope of the disaster risk reduction required by the National System for IDRM. As such, it is necessary and urgent recovering, disseminating and encouraging scientific research to generate theories, methods and models (quantitative and qualitative) of analysis, aimed at the comprehension of the territory, territoriality and habitability. It also should be directed towards strengthening territorial management, taking into account its different dimensions and scales, for the assessment of the real conditions of the population: experiences, resources, assets, capabilities, potentials and requirements in terms of social welfare, as an inescapable - and irreplaceable - device for the reduction and management of risks. 

This article examines the spatial effects of the rehabilitation and pedestrianization of the two major cultural corridors of the Historic Center of Mexico City (CHCM): Regina-San Jerónimo and Madero-Gante-Condesa. Seeking to attract a larger number of visitors and investors to the city, currently promoted as “Cultural Capital”, the local and federal governments have invested heavily on the recreation and tourism sectors of the economy in the city center.Endowed with a substantial monumental heritage, these two cultural corridors have a high potential for tourism and culture-oriented economies, and the diverse cultural amenities offered are currently promoted in the national and international markets by both administrations and businessmen alike.The effects of the spatial processes involved in the rehabilitation and pedestrianization of these two corridors (namely, cultural thematization, changes of land use towards leisure activities, space refunctionalization for recreational and tourism activities, abandonment by lower-income residents followed by the arrival of the middle classes, among others) are either positively or negatively perceived by different stakeholders, according to their own perspectives.This article has used a theoretical-conceptual approach to investigate urban space as related to leisure and recreational activities in a capitalist consumer society. This has allowed confirming, on the one hand, the use of the territory as a commodity and as an economic resource in a selective and differentiated manner; on the other, the key role of space as a production factor, as well as a social projection, through the materialization of certain tendencies. This is the case of the pedestrian cultural corridors, whose aim is to confer meaning to places for their subsequent usufruct.The article explains how the above influences historical-cultural thematization and contributes to build spaces on preexisting narratives, sometimes magnifying their historical content, in order to produce spaces for consumption within a territory homogenized according to cultural themes in line with market-oriented policies and/or demands. An incipient elitization or gentrification of space, evidenced as the occupation by high-income social strata following the abandonment by low-income population, is also identified.After detailing the methodological approach, the article addresses the territorial configuration of the CHCM, with particular emphasis on its recreational and tourism organization and infrastructure. A review of the current cultural heritage projects, including changes of land use, by federal and local governments, as well as by private entrepreneurs and social stakeholders, revealed the specific weight of each of these activities, which were further confirmed through field interviews to key stakeholders.The role of government offices, tourism agencies, and entrepreneurs in promoting the meaning and historical content associated to the thematization of these spaces in the media (printed magazines, tourist guides, and electronic sources) is examined. In order to elaborate an appealing product for visitors, consumers, and tourists, in a landscape reminiscent of the pre-Columbian and Colonial periods, the media displays an image of the CHCM as a unique cultural thematic space: the seat of ancient cultures that founded the City of Tenochtitlan, coexisting with a repository of the architectural heritage from the Colonial period.Finally, the socio-spatial effects of the changes in land use from traditional neighborhood shops to recreation and tourism businesses are explored in both cultural corridors. The use of space by certain social strata depends on the presence of specific stakeholders and the conduct of certain activities, a circumstance that has led to the loss of social cohesion and local daily practices, the rise in the price of land leasing, the abandonment of the area by the low-income population, and the arrival of middle-class residents.

The housing policy in Mexico is characterized by transiting between promoting the massive construction of housing in the urban periphery and the redensification in central areas. In the case of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA), this has resulted in the confinement of low-income inhabitants in northern and eastern peripheral suburbs, characterized by poor urban equipment, infrastructure, and services, while various selected spaces in the central area are intended for middle- and high-income populations.In the early twenty-first century, the conditions of the "facilitator State" (Puebla, 1999 and 2006), which set favorable conditions for the reproduction of capital, made of the real estate and financial sectors the primary agents in housing construction. The housing sector was considered as a major component of economic activity in the construction industry; therefore, the mass production model was given a significant boost. In the period 2000-2006, support for the real estate offer was stimulated by increasing the number of credits for the purchase of new houses. At that time, more households were built than in any other period, with nearly 1.8 million houses (Iracheta, 2015). In the period 2006-2012, the credit system was maintained, and even strengthened, evidencing the growing importance given to housing construction as a catalyst of the national economy from the beginning of this century.This situation led to the expansion and excessive growth of the urban periphery in medium and large cities, resulting in various issues in the construction of housing areas. Many issues relate to poor infrastructure and urban equipment, few employment sources, and problems related to the quality of basic services such as education and healthcare (Arango, 2013; Cervantes and Maya, 2017; Linares, 2013). This has translated into an increase in abandoned houses.To face this expansion and excessive growth at the periphery of Mexican cities, the discourse of government agencies started stressing the urgent need to mitigate and reverse the consequences of mass housing construction. In this context, at the end of the first decade of this century, a series of regulatory provisions were set forth aiming to promote redensification. The 2014-2018 National Housing Program will be the main instrument for this end.  However, two aspects are worth mentioning. First, redensification has benefited middle- and middle-high income inhabitants; second, the discourse has stressed redensification as a factor that reduces expansion and, consequently, the known consequences of mass housing construction, while in reality construction in peripheral areas continues being a good business.As regards the MCMA, the formal housing market scheme can be differentiated in two senses. In central areas, resulting from both federal and local policies  — as was the case with “Bando 2” — the construction of households intended for middle- and middle-high income inhabitants was promoted (Benlliure, 2008). In parallel, northern and eastern areas in the urban periphery were allocated to the construction of housing projects for low-income sectors since the price of land is lower relative to delegations and municipalities in central areas of the city.In all municipalities of the MCMA, excluding the 16 districts of Mexico City, the construction of 685,782 houses for more than 3,000,000 inhabitants has been approved from 2000 to 2015 (Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano y Metropolitano, 2016). This situation reveals the urban expansion of the metropolitan periphery. Some aspects that characterize this massive construction include inadequate conditions in terms of infrastructure, equipment, and basic services, which have led to the abandonment of houses and represent key issues.These dynamics in the center and the periphery can be interpreted as an unequal geographic development process (Harvey, 1990; Smith et al., 1984) that is producing differentiated spaces in the MCMA. The end result is the confinement of low-income inhabitants towards the periphery, while various selected spaces in the central area are intended for the high-income population.

Cartography in hydrology is one of the traditional ways of representing the spatial variability of climatic and environmental events. However, attention is hardly ever focused on how, for example, isohyets maps are constructed. Incorrect selection of the spatial interpolation method can lead to errors in the estimation of magnitudes. Because the early warning systems that work in the State of Querétaro and are used by the Civil Protection authorities during the rainy season, they transmit their information every minute. It is necessary to have spatial interpolation tools that allow us to obtain values with a minimum of error. The warning systems have a spatial interpolation subroutine (cartography) incorporated, in such a way that the authorities can estimate in real time the precipitation level in a determined place, even though there is no meteorological station in situ. A spatial and temporal characterization of the variability in the hourly precipitation of the metropolitan area of Santiago de Querétaro is carried out. Rain gauges are used, measured at each minute of the ten most intense storms recorded in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. Using directional variograms, distance between stations and an anisotropy scheme, the optimal parameters to be used in a Kriging interpolation are obtained. The comparison of the variograms, for example for the month of July, for the years 2013, 2014, 2015 made it possible to identify that the range of validity of the measurements (distance) does not change in spite of the fact that the theoretical formulation of the variogram is modified. In this way, a parameter called alpha can be introduced to explain the spatial variability of rainfall. This is useful because it shows that the precipitation record is a function of the distance at which the observations are valid, something that was already known but not verified in urban areas. The results show that in June there is a greater variability of precipitation in the metropolitan area and that the precipitation pattern has a direct correlation with the distance between rain stations. The analysis allows the correct selection of directional variograms to be used for spatial interpolation and rain field mapping. As an example, data are taken from the storm of August 18, 2014, which was a severe storm that caused severe economic and material damage in the metropolitan area of the city of Queretaro. With this scheme of variability was made the mapping of the isohyets of the storm that day, considering an interpolation with traditional Kriging and a cartography affected by a directional variogram and the alpha parameter. In order to validate the proposed methodology, a cross validation was carried out with the Historical Center rain station, as it is the area most attended by the authorities during the rainy season. The station data were omitted in the estimation of the interpolation of the grid to generate the cartography. Also, 7800 points were calculated to generate a grid interpolated with the proposed formulation and it was demonstrated that the estimated values are acceptable. The results of this work will make it possible to calibrate the spatial interpolation models that work in the hydro-informatics tools used by the Civil Protection authorities.

Este trabajo presenta un análisis comparativo de dos modelos estadísticos de probabilidad de procesos gravitacionales (PG) aplicando regresión logística (RL), utilizando la variable pendiente del terreno. En un primer modelo se analizó información in situ de sitios con deslizamientos y áreas estables; en el segundo, se analizó la información de los mismos sitios utilizando Análisis Espacial de Vecindad Continua (AEVC). La precisión que reportaron ambos modelos (in situ y AEVC), se evaluó estadísticamente con la medida de ajuste de -2 Logaritmo de la Verosimilitud (-2LL).Para la calibración de los modelos se utilizó un inventario de deslizamientos y el Continuo de Elevación Mexicano versión 3.0 (CEM 3.0) del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI).Los resultados muestran que utilizando la información de las áreas de vecindad se obtiene un mayor nivel de ajuste de la ecuación en comparación con el modelo elaborado utilizando la información in situ.El valor de -2LL para el modelo con datos de vecindad fue de 264.312 y para los datos in situ fue de 269.573. Del mismo modo, la tabla de clasificación global del modelo de vecindad reportó un 58.5 %, mientras que para el análisis in situ fue de 51.8 %, lo anterior muestra un aumento de la correcta clasificación en el modelo estadístico del 6.7 % al utilizar el análisis de vecindad.El área de estudio es la cuenca del río La Ciénega, ubicada en la ladera este del volcán Nevado de Toluca, en el Estado de México.

The Santa Ana de Vuelta Larga’s parish, located in the Portoviejo’s basin river of the province of Manabi, Ecuador, is one of the most affected areas by inundations. For this reason, in this recent study it was analyzed its global vulnerability, through physical, social, economic and ecological elements. For this was used direct observation of aspect as the location, conservation and building materials for the construction of housing, also personal and descriptive polls to provide information about risk management and economic lost, and the Geographic Information Systems for the cartographic analysis of environmental aspects of the parish. Quizzes were realized randomly for social groups of 378 people, this is the result of finite population, with a margin error of 5% and a confidence level of 95%. The results show that global vulnerability is average (55%) where the social aspect is more influent, since there is a lack of preparation upon the risk of local governmental institutions and population. Followed by the physical aspect, because of the geographic proximity of households to the river, the ecological factor, for the vegetative cover reduction and the sealed soil, and in a minor proportion of the economic factor because of the location of the commercial zone in places with inferior slopes of 2.5°. Finally, the parish vulnerability is linked to its geographical location, lack of land development planes, preparation for risk and change of soil use and vegetation cover.

The bandits of Río Frío, written between 1889 and 1891, is one of the first novels that propose to define Mexican identity by presenting a large social and manners picture written of the first half of the nineteenth century. From its reading arises the searching of the relationship between the cultural geography with literature in the context of the mexican nineteenth century; and the way these two areas come together in order to explore the gestation of nationalism to create new forms of spatial awareness. In fact, Los bandidos records a large number of places, landscapes and common routes that acquire symbolic meaning for the characters, so that through their spatial practices a cultural geography is articulated which it starts from the country's own capital. The novel is also the result of the stylistic and rhetorical tools used by the author as part of the literature movement of his time. These narrative vehicles had the power to exercise in the reader a metaphorical sense of appropriation of the same space traveled and lived by its author. It is proposed to read the urban landscape of Mexico City and decipher a spatial system based on a key concept of cultural geography: the geosymbol, defined by the french geographer Jöel Bonnemaison, as the spatial units that structure and animate the territory. In the end, the different levels of spatial perception analyzed add up to a cultural geography that not only orders Payno's narrative world, but also helped to create the social scenario and collective identity that was beginning to be forged in the first decades of independent Mexico.