Mexico City's uncommon environment
In most cities, a weather report gives ample information covering the day's temperatures, wind conditions and general forecast.
But in the smog-choked Mexico City metropolis, often called the world's most polluted city, attention is cast upon other variables, such as the amount of ozone contamination measured in Imecas or the volume of particulate matter in the air. There are additional, uncommon health issues, such as the quality of the city's water supply and the always rumbling threat of the nearby volcanoes.
Via the Web you can check out the status of Popocatepetl or the city's fair-to-bleak air quality. There's nothing like sending the URLs of the following sites to friends and family who want to know, "So, what's it really like to live in Mexico City?"
Mexico City Atmospheric Monitoring Network
http://www.calidad-del-aire.gob.mx
Rating: *** (out of 5*)
Formed a few years ago as a collaboration among Mexican and Canadian researchers and universities, this network has done more than any other to provide public access to environmental data.
The site has received numerous awards and public recognition of the sort rarely seen in Mexico. During days of environmental contingency plans, it reached upwards of 6,000 hits per day, proving there is widespread public interest in this type of information. The most useful and up-to-date page on the site records the maximum levels of contaminants: http://www.calidad-del-aire.gob.mx/sima/ddf/_max_imk.html.
Regrettably, however, politics seem to have lessened this website's usefulness. Site coordinator Luis Robert Acosta ( racosta@trentu.ca) complains that data from the Automatic Network of Atmospheric Monitoring (RAMA) is not being sent from the Mexico City government. Acosta says that in the near future the website will be replaced by another, already given a URL: http://www.sima.com.mx.
Mexico City Environment Secretariat
http://www.df.gob.mx/sma/index.html
Rating: ***
An obligatory stop on the information highway is the Federal District's Environmental Secretariat, headed by Alejandro Encinas ( aencinas@df.gob.mx), who has promised to provide information to reporters and the public at large. Kudos on the home page which has good background on the city's reforestation project, environmental contingency plans and automobile verification programs.
Lacking is good data about the city's air quality. This page is connected to RAMA at http://df.gob.mx/cgi-bin/rama.pl, but it is a woefully scaled-down version of the SIMA database.
National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred)
http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/
Rating: ****
One of the most popular sections on this site is a Spanish-language archive monitoring Popocatepetl ( http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/~jfg/mvolcan/mvolcan.cgi), a collaborative effort among Cenapred, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Cenapred was created after the devastating 1985 earthquake in order to promote disaster prevention in Mexico. This decentralized and autonomous center provides first-rate information, and the site should be bookmarked immediately by anyone following the reawakening of Popo. Contact the administrators at popo@cenapred.unam.mx.
Mexico City's Water Supply
http://lanic.utexas.edu:80/la/Mexico/water/book.html
Rating: ****
Though this site has not been updated in several years, it supplies the most comprehensive background on Mexico City's sewer system. Don't pinch your nose; it's actually quite engaging reading. Again, this is a collaborative effort linking U.S. and Mexican researchers. Their results were published in book form in 1995 and then released on the Web, housed here at the University of Texas Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC).
Still looking for information?
I've created a page on the Eco Travels website specifically detailing where you can find environmental info offline in Mexico City. See http://www2.planeta.com/mader/planeta/1197/1197mexinfo.html. Since this type of information is scattered throughout the city, the directory is a reader-friendly guide to bookstores, government agencies and libraries.
Enjoy.
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