Problems Caused by Urbanisation in Mexico City - Coursework Example

Problems Caused by Urbanisation in Mexico Problems Caused by Urbanisation in Mexico Introduction Cities with deprived environmental quality are continually growing. The poor environmental quality is caused by air pollution. As a result, this creates the urgent need to address the interrelated issues and common hindrances observed by the urban capacities and a need for a more complete understanding of the connections between air pollution, climate variation, and the health of human beings. By recognising that air pollution is a persistent and prevalent threat to health, the paper has acknowledged that the menace poses massive health, social, and economics issues to the study worth discussing. The paper focuses on Mexico as the area of interest and aims to determine the linkage between urbanisation and air pollution Factors leading to the build-up of air pollution are mentioned as unusually low rainfall (build-up of black carbon particles), a strong high pressure system lying over Mexico leading to high atmospheric stability, cold clear nights, lack of winds, and very little cloud cover with hot weather leading to the formation of ground-level ozone (Jauregui 1997). In the past three years, an integrated valuation of air quality in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) has been taken by a team of U.S., Mexican, and other international engineers and scientists, political, and social scientists, as well as, economists. The case study dubbed the Integrated Program on Urban, Regional, and Global Air Pollution is an education and research program instigated at MIT. It seeks to address in a coordinated way the air pollution problems that emanate from human activities in megacities (Beaton, Bishop & Steadman 1992). The Mexico City Metropolitan Area lies in an elevated basin at an altitude of 2240 m above sea level with the nearly flat floor of the basin extending over an area of about 5000 km2 across the Mexican Plateau. While Mexico City had less than 3 million people around half a decade ago, by 2000, the population had grown six fold. Currently, the MCMA is the second largest populated city in the world after Tokyo, with 26 million inhabitants. Also, the city is houses the national political institutions, most of the country’s industrial and financial infrastructure. During the 20th century, MCMA has witnessed a massive transformation in demographics and urban areas having appealed to immigrants from other areas (Eskeland & Fyzioglu 1997). The population has grown exponentially continually claiming land further away from the Federal District. In the last half century, the area under urbanisation in the region had increased ten times from just 120 to 1500 km in 1995. Thus, the expansion pushed the city past the federal district into other municipalities of the State of Mexico. Issues related to the problem The levels of major air pollutants in Mexico City mostly exceed the maximum exposure limits that are established by the World Health Organisation (WHO). For instance, WHO (2005) warned that 8-hours average ozone levels exceeding 100 micrograms per cubic meter impede human health. However, for the 1986-2005 period, this warning was surpassed in Mexico City by over 92 percent of all days (Faiz, 1990). Health impacts of Air Pollution Human health remains a major concern of air pollution, as well as, the major motivation behind policy actions in the MCMA. However, there are considerations of the effects of air pollution on global warming and the ecosystems (Ramirez, Lamm, Ren & Jones 2013). Air pollution has an array of effects on health and imposes potentially considerable economic costs to the society. Most of the knowledge concerning the health impacts of air pollution is drawn from the daily fluctuations in hospital admissions, deaths, and respiratory symptoms in response to daily changes in the levels of pollution in Mexico City. Therefore, the time series data has revealed the morbidity and mortality effects of varied pollutants such as Carbon monoxide and Sulphur (IV) Oxide. Led by the Harvard School of Public Health and several scientists from Mexico, the Health Ministry has studied the health risks presented by the current and the projected intensities of pollution in the MCMA. It has also approximated the economic effects of the air quality in Mexico City (Streit & Francisco 1996). The team, which dwelled on exposure to pollutants, especially PM10, a particulate matter (PM) that is smaller than 10 µm in diameter and the ozone, discovered that in 1998 alone, the estimated population exposure to the matter could only be compared to those seen in most parts of the world (Edgerton et al., 1999). The ozone levels have particularly received a lot of attention in Mexico City owing to the fact that the one-hour air quality threshold of 110 ppb is being exceeded in over 300 days each year. Though the effect on mortality is not as eminent as those seen from the particulate matter, the ozone too has significant impacts on the respiratory function and on the hospital admissions for respiratory conditions including asthma (Romieu, Menesses, Ruiz & Sienra 1996). As a matter of fact, the escalating levels of ozone and other pollutants prompted the Mexico City Government to initiate a program, Hoy No Circula (HCN) in the final quarter of 1989 that prohibited drivers from using their vehicles one weekday per day depending on the last digit of the vehicle’s license plate. For instance, vehicles with a plate ending in 4 or 5 may not be used on Mondays (Molina & Molina 2002). The imposition applies to residential and commercial vehicles with the term “Mexico City” inclusive of the city itself and the municipalities in the neighbouring states. In 1989, the restrictions applied to 460000 vehicles a day translating to 2.3 million vehicles. An empirical strategy on the effects of HNC and; thus, the health of the population on an average hourly air pollution in logs, yt, is regressed on 1 (HNC) an indicator variable for the observations following the implementation of driving restrictions, as well as, the vector of covariate xi. Yt=yo+yi1 (HNCt) +y2x2 + ut. Our coefficient of interest, yi, represents the percentage effect of HNC on air pollution. The vector of covariates, xt, includes indicator variables showing the month of the year, the day of the week and hour of the day, as well as, the interactions between the hours of the day and the weekends. In a population that is as huge as Mexico City, the occurrence of cardiovascular deaths, premature deaths among infants, chronic bronchitis, and visits to the emergency room could be reduced by up to 1000 per year on the event that there is a 10 percent reduction on the emissions (Edgerton et al., 1996). Prior determinations to evaluate the prices of pollution in Mexico City, as discussed above, had focused on the direct medical costs. While the economic value of pollution of air pollution may sometimes be difficult to estimate, they seem to be spread among various spheres. Most estimates for the financial worth of decreases in death risks are derived by using approximations of the willingness by the society to compensate for such developments. In trying to get the comprehensive picture, an interdisciplinary study evaluated savings and health benefits. Communication and social participation specialists tried to understand the peoples’ perceptions and assess indirect costs (Jauregui 1997). For instance, on one hand, the sick leave days and the money that is used in treating the various ailments. On the other hand, mothers stay home to take care of sick children further denting the costs. Transportation is inarguably a critical enabler of economic activity and beneficial to the social interactions. However, the transportation sector is also a major source of the pollution leading with carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides among others. The growing concerns of congestion, accidents and the lack of security are two-fold. They increase air pollution and the economic implications cannot be underestimated. With the current trends, MCMA population will have reached 26 million by 2020 with the largest growth in the state of Mexico and the nearby cities of Puebla, Cuernavaca, Pachuca, and Toluca. The megalopolis is expected to contain about 36 million people. Besides stressing of the economic resources, much will still be employed in research and effective ways of curbing the menace (Molina & Molina 2002). Research shows that minimising particulate matter (PM10) would produce the greatest health and financial benefits. Cutting both ozone and PM10 by just 10% would result in average “savings” of 760 million U.S. dollars per year. Measured in human terms, that translated into 33287 fewer emergency room visits in 2010 and 4188 fewer hospital admissions for respiratory distress. Further, it was estimated to be responsible for 266 fewer infant deaths per year. However, this requires at least 15 billion U.S. dollars of private and public investments in air quality improvement projects (Molina & Molina 2002). In seeking solutions to the issues mentioned above, various methods have been used. One such is community participation. The Mexican government has worked to minimise reactive olefins from LPG. Most importantly, a new legislation introduced in 1991 ensures that new vehicles have to be fitted with catalytic converters (Ramirez, Ren, Jones & Lamm 2013). Each of these activities has gone a long way to improving the air quality in Mexico City and the formation of ozone pollution. Promoting community capacity to solve the problems was a new attempt by the government (INEGI 1994). In this project, three poor communities situated in the outlying mountainous regions and three more that were centrally located participated. Through games and other participatory activities, the promoters helped create a sense of community. Workshops then aided participants comprehend the issues emanating from air pollution, identifying community problems and needs and decipher their role in helping solve them (INEGI 1994). In all cases, attention was given to distinguish niche of men and women in preserving both health and the environment at home, the workplace, or the environment. In an interesting turn of events, according to Eskeland and Fyzioglu (1997), the leftist city government forced 350,000 old vehicles to keep off the roads every Saturday. This was in addition to the one weekday that has been in existence since 1989. So far, there are adjacent states that have drummed support for the “Day without a Car” claiming that it will improve public health. Others include enforcing an increasingly strict and technically sophisticated Vehicle Verification Program for the vehicle emission control systems semi-annual inspection, increasing the use of high-capacity public transportation by extension of the metro lines, introduction of bus rapid transit, improving the service quality, personal security and facilitating inter-modal transfers, provision of low-interest loan for taxi substitution and construction of roadway and other infrastructure (S., 2013). Conclusion The pertinent environmental issues in urban pollution, climate change, and land degradation are as closely linked as they are diverse. The fact that air pollutants arises from combustion and the particulate matter play important in air quality, ecosystem perturbations, and climate change. Bringing together transportation, economic, administration, and health perspectives to understanding and defeating air pollution. Policies meant to minimise air pollution must be founded on the best available scientific knowledge. Combined with political will, capacity and community participation will provide insights on the challenges and the opportunities that face other megacities in the world. References Faiz, A. 1990. Automotive Air Pollution: Issues and Options for Developing Countries. Washington D.C.: World Bank Publications. Beaton, S P., Bishop, G A., Stedman, D. H., 1992. Emissions Characteristics of Mexico City Vehicles. J. Air and Waste Management 42(11), pp. 1424-1429. Edgerton, S. A., Bian X., Doran J. C., Fast J. D., 1999. Particulate air pollution in Mexico City: A collaborative research project. London: Taylor & Francis. Eskeland, G. S., & Feyzioglu, T., 1997. Rationing Can Backfire: The Day without a Car in Mexico City. World Bank Econ. Rev. 11(3), pp. 383-408. INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Information). 1994. El sector energetico en Mexico: Edicion 1994. Mexico City: INEGI. Jauregui, E., 1997. Heat Island Development in Mexico City. Atmospheric Environment 31(22): 3821-31. Molina, L., & Molina, M J., 2002. Air Quality in the Mexico Megacity: An Integrated Assessment. New York; Springer Science & Business Media Publications. Ramirez, D., Ren, J., Jones K D., & Lamm H., 2013. Environmental Sustainability Issues in the South East Texas-Mexico Border Region. Springer Science & Business Media. Romieu, I., Menesses F., Ruiz, S., Sienra J. J., 1996. Effects of air pollution on the respiratory health of asthmatic children living in Mexico City. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 154(2), pp. 300-307. S, L., 2013. Urbanisation: Making room. [Online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/01/urbanisation [Accessed 29 April 2015]. Streit, G. E., Francisco G., 1996. Mexico City Air Quality: Progress of an International Collaborative Project to Define Air Quality Management Options. Atmospheric Environment 30(5), pp. 723-33. World Bank Mexico Air Quality Management. 2002. Improving Air Quality in Metropolitan Mexico City: An Economic Evaluation. Policy Research Working Paper no. WPS 2785, World Bank, Washington, DC. Read More