Contribution of Marine Spatial Planning in Mexico to Marine and Coastal Management

La planeación espacial marina en México se materializa a través del ordenamiento ecológico, un instrumento de política ambiental transversal y participativo. A través de este instrumento, el gobierno busca fortalecer la coordinación entre autoridades y sociedad para subsanar las consecuencias negativas de la planeación sectorizada en distintas dependencias gubernamentales transitando hacia el manejo integrado de la zona costera y la economía azul. El propósito de este artículo es describir la experiencia de la planeación espacial marina en México, haciendo énfasis en la gobernanza colaborativa. La intención es que esta perspectiva sea de utilidad para otros países con características socioeconómicas, ambientales y/o con gobernanza similares.Marine spatial planning in Mexico is materialized by the ecological ordinance, a cross-sectoral environmental policy instrument. Throughout this instrument, government seeks to strengthen coordination between authorities and society to counter and correct negative consequences of sectoral planning in different government agencies moving forward towards integrated coastal management and the blue economy. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of marine spatial planning in Mexico, with an emphasis on collaborative governance. The intention is that this perspective may prove its usefulness for other countries with similar socioeconomic, environmental characteristics and/or governance

Opinion: Urban Resilience Efforts Must Consider Social And Political Forces

Environmental disasters, ranging from catastrophic floods to extreme temperatures, have caused more than 30,000 deaths per year and more than US$ 250–300 billion a year in economic losses, globally, between 1995 and 2015. Improved infrastructure and planning for extreme events is essential in urban areas, where an increasingly greater fraction of the world’s inhabitants reside. In response, international governmental and private initiatives have placed the goal of resilience at the center stage of urban planning. [For example, The 100 Resilient Cities Initiative (www.100resilientcities.org/); the Global Covenant of Mayors (https://www.compactofmayors.org/globalcovenantofmayors/); and the recent UN Habitat III (https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda)]. In addition, scientific and policy communities alike now recognize the need for “safe-to-fail” infrastructural design, and the potential role of green and blue infrastructure in mediating hydrological and climatic risks in cities

Utilizing international networks for accelerating research and learning in transformational sustainability science

A promising approach for addressing sustainability problems is to recognize the unique conditions of a particular place, such as problem features and solution capabilities, and adopt and adapt solutions developed at other places around the world. Therefore, research and teaching in international networks becomes critical, as it allows for accelerating learning by sharing problem understandings, successful solutions, and important contextual considerations. This article identifies eight distinct types of research and teaching collaborations in international networks that can support such accelerated learning. The four research types are, with increasing intensity of collaboration: (1) solution adoption; (2) solution consultation; (3) joint research on different problems; and (4) joint research on similar problems. The four teaching types are, with increasing intensity of collaboration: (1) adopted course; (2) course with visiting faculty; (3) joint course with traveling faculty; and (4) joint course with traveling students. The typology is illustrated by extending existing research and teaching projects on urban sustainability in the International Network of Programs in Sustainability, with partner universities from Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. The article concludes with challenges and strategies for extending individual projects into collaborations in international networks.Postprint (author's final draft

Joint stakeholder decision-making on the management of the Silao-Romita aquifer using AHP

Over-exploitation and pollution have been identified as the main problems facing the Silao-Romita aquifer in Guanajuato, Mexico. The objective of this paper is to analyze the current situation, characterized by a clear lack of legislative enforcement, dispersion of competences, and scarcity of economic resources, in order to establish a new prioritization of action plans, and choose from among three specific management options. One of the main challenges when addressing these problems in a holistic manner is the conflicting viewpoints of the sectors involved. As each stakeholder has a different perception, there is a clear need for appropriate mechanisms to reach a consensus in decision-making. To achieve the objective, we use the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), because of its flexibility and the availability of mathematical axiomatic principles and techniques to obtain group preferences and priorities. In addition, we use several tools developed by the authors to obtain consistency, streamline the trade-off between stakeholder know-how and synthetic consistency, and consistently complete partial judgments given by some of the stakeholders. The problem of obtaining a consensus among the actors involved regarding criteria and alternatives is also considered. The obtained results are intended to serve as guidelines for conducting priority actions to help solve the general problem of the study area, and to identify the management model that best meets the needs of the aquifer, according to the actors involved. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by project IDAWAS, DPI2009-11591 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; with supplementary support from ACOMP/2011/188 of the education department of the Generalitat Valenciana. The first author wishes to thank CONACYT for the 10007-2011-01 scholarship program. The use of English in this paper was revised by John Rawlins.Delgado Galván, XV.; Izquierdo Sebastián, J.; Benítez López, J.; Pérez García, R. (2014). Joint stakeholder decision-making on the management of the Silao-Romita aquifer using AHP. Environmental Modelling & Software. 51:310-322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.10.008S3103225

Hung Out to Dry: Choice of Priority Ecoregions for Conserving Threatened Neotropical Anurans Depends on Life-History Traits

Background: In the Neotropics, nearly 35 % of amphibian species are threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and habitat split; anuran species with different developmental modes respond to habitat disturbance in different ways. This entails broad-scale strategies for conserving biodiversity and advocates for the identification of high conservation-value regions that are significant in a global or continental context and that could underpin more detailed conservation assessments towards such areas. Methodology/Principal Findings: We identified key ecoregion sets for anuran conservation using an algorithm that favors complementarity (beta-diversity) among ecoregions. Using the WWF’s Wildfinder database, which encompasses 700 threatened anuran species in 119 Neotropical ecoregions, we separated species into those with aquatic larvae (AL) or terrestrial development (TD), as this life-history trait affects their response to habitat disturbance. The conservation target of 100 % of species representation was attained with a set of 66 ecoregions. Among these, 30 were classified as priority both for species with AL and TD, 26 were priority exclusively for species with AL, and 10 for species with TD only. Priority ecoregions for both developmental modes are concentrated in the Andes and in Mesoamerica. Ecoregions important for conserving species with AL are widely distributed across the Neotropics. When anuran life histories were ignored, species with AL were always underrepresented in priority sets

How do public policies respond to spatialized environmental issues? Feedback and perspectives

International audienceIn this chapter, the opportunity is given to three persons in charge of the planification and territorial and environmental prospective departments of major government bodies—ministries and the European Commission—to express their views. We wished to hear the opinion of these practitioners on the geoprospective approach. How is the spatial dimension introduced in the prospective studies carried out by their organizations? What are the preferred themes? On what types of spaces, regional levels, and at what scale are these prospective works conducted? How are they achieved, using what methodologies and operating modes? Backed by their experience, how do they consider the geoprospective approach, its interest, appropriation by the stakeholders concerned, and the prospects for its spread

El Pinacate volcanic field, Northwest Mexico: An example of a shield cluster; [Campo volcánico El Pinacate, noroeste de México: Un ejemplo de un cúmulo de escudos]

El Pinacate volcanic field, Northwest Mexico, includes a large shield volcano (Sta. Clara) and more than 400 vents, most of which are cinder cones and a few maars of Pleistocene and recent age. Previous studies of the distribution of those vents focused on the identification of preferred orientations of vent alignments, paying little attention to the identification of clusters of vents within the field. In this work several methods of spatial distribution analyses are combined together to describe the spatial structure of the distribution. As a result, four main structures are identified, each interpreted as a long-lived volcanic system that has remained active throughout the history of the volcanic activity on the region. Interaction of the axes of activity within those structures with an older listric fault that crosses the field from NW to SE is responsible for the apparent difference in distribution observed in the north and south halves of the field. Differences to the depth of the Curie isotherm also contribute to the observed differences on the vent distribution at the surface. Although the influence of tectonic stresses is very important in controlling the location of activity on this field, in this work we show that it is not necessary to invoke a change in the orientation of those stresses to explain the evolution of the region. © This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]