Valoración visual de la calidad ambiental del área urbana de Querétaro, México: la compleja sencillez de valorar el entorno urbano

Abstract

In several Latin American urban spaces, assessing environmental quality is costly and the results are unclear to most people. Given this, we performed an analysis of the environmental quality of the urban area of Queretaro, Mexico (UAMQ or in spanish AUMQ). To this end, we developed an urban environmental quality index (UEQI or in spanish ICAU) that is based on a visual assessment, along census tracts, of the following environmental variables: water, air and soil. We investigated the presence of spatial clusters that accentuate the deterioration of urban environmental quality (UEQ or CAU in Spanish). Our results showed that the UEQ decreased in clusters as you move away from the urban center, while the priority areas are associated with the variables soil and air. We also present 27 unreleased environmental variables for AUMQ, whose results and methodology could be replicated for other urban spaces.