Spatial inequalities and urban form in mexican cities

 Ruben Garnica-Monroy  , Seraphim Alvanides (Northumbria University UK)

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With a population of more than 120 million people, Mexico is the third largest country in America.Most of the Mexican cities suffer from socioeconomic inequalities.

A number of studies have been published looking at the improper provision or location of public services and how it may affect those on lower incomes. However, very few studies in Mexico have used spatial accessibility as a

variable to explain urban inequalities and further on, as a means of better city-planning.

 

Our hypothesis is that these inequalities are worsened by spatial inequalities, resulting from their urban form and bad-location decisions. The substantive aim of this project is to investigate the role of urban form in manifested spatial inequalities across 24 of 59 of the Mexican metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 inhabitants. In order to achieve this, we combine secondary data with sophisticated geospatial analysis. In particular, three sets of geographical data will be analysed.

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First, spatial accessibility of each city at different scales will be calculated using Space Syntax to observe how its configuration possibly influences the distribution of activities and the way the inhabitants live and move.

 

Second, locating the most important urban services, i.e. health, education, government and food-supply, and according to its scale, generate catchment areas that show the real number of people they serve (and not the official number they should).

 

The third type is demographic data that will evidence characteristics of population.

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a. Researcher at the School of Education and Humanities. Tecnologico de Monterrey.

b. Reader at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. Northumbria University at Newcastle