Mexico City Airport Research Articles

Probability of Heavy Metals Mobility from Dumped Sediments in a Quarry

Dregs from the former Texcoco Lake were used to build the new international Mexico City airport and pumped in a quarry. The dredged sediments could have heavy metals (HMs) capable of polluting water bodies. The study’s objective was to evaluate the content of Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni, and Pb of the sediments deposited in the quarry, their transfer to the runoff water and the adsorption of Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb in the subsoil. Other variables measured were water infiltration rate, HM in sediments, water runoff, and the HM adsorption in the subsoil. The infiltration rate in sediments is low (≤ 10-7 cm/h). HMs in sediments are within the maximum permissible limits by Mexican regulations, for sewage sludge. The HMs in the runoff from the sediments are in the range of the Mexican regulations for the discharge into rivers and for irrigation purposes of agricultural soils. They are also within safe limits for irrigation use considered by FAO and EPA. The materials adsorption capacity of Pb (1250 mg kg-1), Zn (588 mg kg-1), and Cu (1250 mg kg-1) is higher than the concentration of metals in the runoff water, so the movement of HMs down into the subsoil is unlikely.

An Approach to Measure the Performance and the Efficiency of Future Airport Infrastructure

The aim of this paper is to design an approach to evaluate the expected efficiency and performance of future airport infrastructure. First, an airport sampling method to select similar airports is developed based on socioeconomic and operational airport variables that are summarized in a proxy variable; second, the ARIMA-GARCH-Bootstrap method is applied to forecast the selected outputs (PAX and ATMS) whilst the selected inputs (Cities, Gates, Runaways, Airport Size, Pax carriers, and Num. of employees) remain constant; and third, the VRS-OO and the CRS-OO DEA models are implemented to evaluate the efficiency and performance of the airports in the current and future years. The proposed approach is used to evaluate the future airport infrastructure of the new Mexico City Airport against 19 representative worldwide airport hubs. The proposed approach is applied to analyze the Mexico City Airport multi-airport system infrastructure as a case study. The results show that this multi-airport system requires more airside infrastructure that must be added by the new Mexico City Airport, airlines should operate aircrafts with more capacity to serve more PAX per ATM, and airlines must open new connections at the new Mexico City Airport to increase the expected efficiency and performance of this multi-airport system.

Discrete-event simulation of air traffic movements in the Mexican Metropolitan airspace

The saturation problem of Mexico City airport is a complex problem, due to several reasons, such as the number of passengers served and operations carried out, as well as the fact that it is located in a megalopolis with severe problems of ground connection in all types of transports. The use of mathematical and simulation models is a convenient option for assessing hypothetical situations, for example, with respect to whether air traffic management is improved when using the recently redefined metropolitan airport system. This study proposes a discrete-event simulation model to assess saturation in the Mexico City Metropolitan airspace, considering the currently installed capacity of the system’s airports, as well as the current airspace design above Mexico City’s metropolitan area.

Model-based Methodology for Identifying Capacity Limitations in Airports: Mexico City Airport Case

Model-based Methodology for Identifying Capacity Limitations in Airports: Mexico City Airport Case

Simulation of a remote runway solution for a congested airport: Mexico City Airport

The airport of Mexico City has been declared saturated for most of the day. For that reason, the Mexican government announced a couple of years ago the construction of a completely new one which is supposed to be operative in 2020 in its first phase. However, the technical issues and the economic downturn in the country jeopardise the project; for that reason, it is important to have alternatives that allow investing in a progressive fashion so that the investments are not lost or end up in useless infrastructure like the ones that have taken place in other parts of the world. The current work presents a simulation-based study of the alternative of using one of the runways of the new airport in a remote fashion in case the original project is delayed or even cancelled. The results indicate that the proposed infrastructure alleviates the congestion problem in the current airport, and at the same time allows the traffic growth with performance indicators similar to airports that have remote runways as in the case of Schiphol in The Netherlands.

Simulation of a remote runway solution for a congested airport: Mexico City Airport

Simulation of a remote runway solution for a congested airport: Mexico City Airport

Design of the Future Mexico City Airport: Attaining Resilience in Soft Ground

The Lake Texcoco region to the east of Mexico City is famed for its deep lacustrine deposits of compressible clay, which amplify ground shaking during seismic events. The area is also gradually subsiding approximately 18 cm/yr due to groundwater extraction; thus, the site's geotechnical characteristics change over time. Although its poor soil conditions make the Texcoco lakebed one of the most challenging locations on Earth to build on, it will soon become the site of one of the world's largest airports: the Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico (NAICM). Phase I of this massive infrastructure project is scheduled to open in late 2020 and will consist of three runways, an 89-m-high air traffic control tower (ATCT), and a 1.6-km-long by 0.5-km wide terminal building. The terminal building, the ATCT, and surrounding runways and taxiways have been designed for a 75-year service life. In planning for this service life, all project teams had to assess a wide range of conditions that could result from the gradual regional subsidence and the compressibility of the soft ground. These design concerns required a robust understanding of the soil's unique composition, the regional seismicity, and both the static and dynamic behavior of Mexico City clays.

News: Cutting-edge building methods used for new Mexico City airport

News: Cutting-edge building methods used for new Mexico City airport

Planning, Politics, and Urban Mega-Projects in Developmental Context: Lessons from Mexico City’s Airport Controversy

ABSTRACT:Using a focus on a failed airport project for Mexico City, this article explores the conditions that enable and constrain urban mega-project development in countries facing simultaneous political and economic transition. The article argues that the Mexico City airport project faced three major obstacles, each inspired by citizen efforts to influence planning decisions: (1) divisions within and between the political class and citizens, driven by democratization, decentralization, and globalization; (2) conflicts between local and national authorities over the relevance of citizen participation in project development; and (3) a strong coalition of local, national, and international allies using cultural identity, historical allegiances, and geographic location to build and expand struggle against the airport. In theoretical terms, this article suggests that the historical and institutional legacies of urban and national development in Mexico have created bureaucratic ambiguities and tensions over who is most responsible for major urban mega-project development. It also concludes that planning authorities have not yet developed institutional structures and processes that can enhance government legitimacy and allow the successful implementation of mega-projects in the face of forceful opposition.

People's Front in Defence of Land, San Salvador Atenco: A testimony

Martha Perez Pineda gives her statement of the Peoples Front in Defence of the Land (The Peoples Front in Defence of Land (Frente del Pueblo en Defensa de la Tierra, FPDT) was formed in 2002, by residents of San Salvador Atenco, to resist their forced displacement by the federal government of Mexico and Estado de Mexico. The government planned to displace them to make way for the new Mexico City Airport. The people of San Salvador Atenco refused and battled, the most common fights were disputes for land. San Salvador Atenco is the municipal seat of Atenco, in the State of Estado de Mexico. The name ‘Atenco’ comes from a Nahuatl phrase meaning ‘place on the edge of water’ and their struggle over ten years to defend their land, close to Mexico, from the construction of a new airport and motorways.

The Determinants of Pricing in the Mexican Domestic Airline Sector: The Impact of Competition and Airport Congestion

Low-cost airlines in Mexico affect the lowest-quoted fares of one of the two principal incumbent carriers, but have no effect on the lowest-quoted fares of the other incumbent carrier. The same conclusion holds for competition between incumbent carriers where the lowest-quoted fares of one of the incumbent carriers is lower when incumbents compete. Congestion at the Mexico City airport is limiting potential competition, with carriers being able to charge a significant price premium. This suggests that the societal costs of airport congestion can go well beyond the negative congestion externality and should also include the effects of reduced competition. These findings raise important public policy issues.

Noise pollution problem in Mexico City.

Noise pollution in Mexico City is not a solved problem yet. In 1976 a national regulation was issued to prevent and reduce noise emitted by fixed and mobile sources, but it has not been implemented. This paper analyzes the reasons why noise pollution for Mexico citizen’s welfare is not the main concern, why regulations have not been applied, and what are the results of absence of attention to this problem. The impact of Mexico City Airport, main roads, and construction practices are unknown and has to be studied and reflected in regulations and government policies. Recommendations of this paper include these main aspects of the problem.

Oaxaca: Rebellion against Marginalization, Extreme Poverty, and Abuse of Power

In the last five years, millions of people have taken to the streets in Mexico challenging the political system and economic policies. In Atenco, in the state of Mexico, the population prevented the construction of the new Mexico City airport in 2002. Atenco became a center of resistance which has supported numerous struggles. Over a million people participated in protests in the year 2005, when the right-wing government of Vicente Fox attempted to eliminate Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the presidential elections of 2006 by way of a "legal" maneuver. More than two million protested against the election fraud with which Fox's government imposed the presidency of Felipe Calderón. Thousands of citizens of Oaxaca rebelled against the corrupt and oppressive state government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Despite assassinations, disappearances, beastly abuse, and imprisonment, the protest, which began in May of 2006, continued until April of 2007. In retaliation for the events of 2006, the federal police repressed hundreds of protesters and arrested dozens of people. They broke into homes without warrants, and raped womenThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Social Movements in the Mexico City Airport Controversy: Globalization, Democracy, and the Power of Distance

How did a relatively small group of uneducated peasants organize a movement to halt a huge national project to build a showcase airport outside Mexico City? This article applies the power of distance model, an analytic perspective for understanding social movement origins and successes based on an understanding of state-society relations, to the mobilization by indigenous peasants against the proposed Texcoco airport. The power of distance perspective focuses on relative distance or closeness of relations between the state and its citizens. Our findings indicate that, despite democratization in Mexico, the distance between local peasants and the newly elected Fox administration was widened by its neoliberal, globalizing focus, which partly explains the escalation of the anti-airport mobilization. On another dimension, peasants were able to bridge the distance between them and global human-rights networks using an indigenous rights frame and global communications media to bring new resources to bear and eventually force the Fox administration to withdraw the airport proposal.

Application of the NARCM model to high‐resolution aerosol simulations: Case study of Mexico City basin during the Investigación sobre Materia Particulada y Deterioro Atmosférico‐Aerosol and Visibility Research measurements campaign

The Northern Aerosol Regional Climate Model (NARCM) is used to study the visibility and three‐dimensional (3‐D) evolution of aerosol distributions within the Mexico City basin. NARCM simulates transport, diffusion, deposition, and size distributions of sulphur aerosol particles in the region. The model assumes only simple sulphur oxidation, not taking explicitly into account the urban air chemistry. Rather, it focuses on detailed aerosol microphysics and 3‐D optical properties. The simulation performance is compared with upper air and ground‐based observations for the following specific days of intensive measurement: 2, 4, and 14 March 1997. Time series at Mexico City airport shows lower values of visibility in the morning due to a shallow mixed layer and higher values in the afternoon following the evolution of the mixed layer depth. Modeled visibility shows large dependence on cardinal direction and size distribution of particles. It is found that better resolution of particle size leads to better representation of coagulation processes and to realistic size distributions which show a characteristic accumulation mode around 0.3 μm. As a result, visibility simulations are closer to those observed at the airport location. Comparing visibility is a stringent test for the model because it requires an accurate representation of 3‐D meteorological fields together with a realistic aerosol simulation.

A method for the incorporation of parametric uncertainty in the weighted evaluation multi-attribute decision analysis model

We develop an extension of the classic Weighted Evaluation (WE) Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis (MADA) model that allows for uncertainty in the parameters of the model. Uncertainties in attribute importance weights and alternative evaluation ratings are represented by independent uniform, triangular or beta random variables; and an iterative multi-variate integration scheme is used to evaluate the mean, variance and skewness of the resulting Probabilistic Weighted Evaluation (PWE). These moments are used to compute two-term Edgeworth and normal approximations to the distribution of: (a) the PWE for each of several alternatives that are to be analysed separately; or (b) the difference between PWEs for selected alternatives that are to be analysed on a pairwise basis. The proposed methodology is used to compare probabilistically three alternative solutions to the Mexico City Airport Siting Problem of Keeney and Raiffa (Keeney, R. L. and Raiffa, H., Decisions with Multiple Objectives. Wiley, New York, 1976).

Multiplicative Utility Functions

This paper presents sufficient conditions for a multiattribute utility function to be either multiplicative or additive. The number of requisite assumptions to imply the main result is equal to the number of attributes. Because the assumptions involve only trade-offs between two attributes at a time or lotteries over one attribute, it is reasonable to expect that decision makers can ascertain whether these assumptions are appropriate for their specific problems. Procedures are given for verifying the assumptions and assessing the resulting utility functions. The paper concludes with a sketch of a recent application of the results to a six-attribute problem relating to the development of Mexico City's airport facilities.

A Decision Analysis with Multiple Objectives: The Mexico City Airport

This paper reports an analysis done for the Secretaria de Obras Publicas (Ministry of Public Works) of Mexico to help select the most effective strategy for developing the airport facilities of the Mexico City metropolitan area to insure quality air service for the remainder of the century. Effectiveness is a complex function including attributes of cost, safety, capacity of the airport facilities, noise levels, social disruption, and access times. A decision analytic model was used for evaluating strategies. The attributes were adapted to account for impacts over time, and probability density functions and a utility function were assessed over the six attributes. Details of these assessments are given. The results and implications of the analyses are discussed. A unique aspect of the study involved the assessment of a multiattribute utility function and its use to aid an important policy decision.