Elements of Infrastructure Under-Investment in Mexican Slums

José Jerónimo OLVERA LEÓN

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This research is circumscribed to the growing analysis framework that explores the visualisation of the spatial dimension of poverty. It uses the most recent disaggregated census and public finance data to produce maps that allow observing the characteristics and spatial patterns of poor and vulnerable groups in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico. Concretely, it seeks to answer whether local governments, to which the main slums adhere, are responsible for being negligent in effectuate insufficient levels of infrastructure investments or not. In this sense, the agglomerations of poor and vulnerable groups have been mapped and identified in municipalities at the eastern edge of Mexico City, where the investment levels in infrastructure are the highest in absolute terms but the lowest measured per capita. However, a divergent spatial pattern of those lacking piped water, drainage, and electricity indicates that different social deficiencies suppose more significant challenges in the slums than the basic services' provision, thus, illustrating the nonexistence of such negligence. Nonetheless, this research recognises that an integral characterisation and depiction of the slums requires further studies that break down the information at a neighbourhood level and include the spatial allocation of the infrastructure investment from the state level.

Abstract:

This research is circumscribed to the growing analysis framework that explores the visualisation of the spatial dimension of poverty. It uses the most recent disaggregated census and public finance data to produce maps that allow observing the characteristics and spatial patterns of poor and vulnerable groups in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico. Concretely, it seeks to answer whether local governments, to which the main slums adhere, are responsible for being negligent in effectuate insufficient levels of infrastructure investments or not. In this sense, the agglomerations of poor and vulnerable groups have been mapped and identified in municipalities at the eastern edge of Mexico City, where the investment levels in infrastructure are the highest in absolute terms but the lowest measured per capita. However, a divergent spatial pattern of those lacking piped water, drainage, and electricity indicates that different social deficiencies suppose more significant challenges in the slums than the basic services' provision, thus, illustrating the nonexistence of such negligence. Nonetheless, this research recognises that an integral characterisation and depiction of the slums requires further studies that break down the information at a neighbourhood level and include the spatial allocation of the infrastructure investment from the state level.

Keywords

Infrastructure, poverty maps, slums, Mexico, deprivations

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 31. 5. 2021

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: prof. Pascale Combes Motel

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Science

Master programme / field:
Geography / International Development Studies