Socio-Ecological Regionalization of the Urban Sub-Basins in Mexico

Mónica Cervantes-Jiménez,Carlos Mastachi-Loza,Carlos Díaz-Delgado,Enrique González-Sosa,Miguel Ángel Gómez-Albores

doi:10.3390/w9010014

Abstract

Mexico is a diverse country in terms of culture and natural environments. For this reason, the delimitation of homogeneous basins with similar environmental, social, and economic attributes is important in order to facilitate the elaboration of high-impact regional development strategies. However, this represents an ongoing challenge due to the complexity of the interactions that occur within socio-ecological systems at a regional scale. In the present study, the main objective was to identify the interrelationships among different aspects of the socio-ecological system located within basins, with the goal of utilizing this information to promote the region-specific sustainable development of an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Therefore, in this study, environmental, social, economic, and institutional variables, relevant to water management and with the capacity to be expressed spatially, were utilized to identify regions with similar characteristics and to regionalize the urban sub-basins of Mexico based on a principal component analysis (PCA) and the k-medoids clustering algorithm. The identification of the most adequate number of regions at the national level was determined by the silhouette method. As a result, five distinct regions for Mexico were generated, which forms the first step in the design of integrated water resources management strategies for these regions.

Highlights

The development of water management strategies at regional, national, and local levels is key for guiding the adequate use of water resources [1]
The latter are mainly found in the northern region of the country, which is characterized by conditions of aridity and, in general, extreme climates [31]
This paper aims to contribute to several aspects of water policy convergence, which according to the characteristics mentioned by Bennet [9] as well as Dolowitz and Marsh [10], first involves the definition of planning goals and the delineation of policies oriented toward improving specific conditions present in the sub-basins

Summary

Introduction

The development of water management strategies at regional, national, and local levels is key for guiding the adequate use of water resources [1]. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a paradigm for governing water management and is part of a multidimensional systematic process, where the sustainable development and use of water resources is achieved through the integration of the involved environmental, economic, social, and institutional subsystems. This process recognizes the interactions among sectors that lead to the adequate use or abuse of water resources and seeks to address fundamental environmental concerns [2]. An ecosystem may be modified due to the use of its water resources by the surrounding human population, and subsequently, the dependent

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion