Resilience to Extreme Events in the City of La Paz, Mexico

Abstract

This chapter presents the results of a vulnerability assessment and some specific pathways to enhance the resilience in the city of La Paz, Mexico, after the devastating Hurricane Odile (2014). We apply a comprehensive methodology based on the following indicators. (1) Intersectoriality: spatial patterns in La Paz displayed clearly that the places with the lowest resilience are located in outlying areas of the city (to raise the resilience is necessary to have a cross–sectional coordination in water, electricity, health, housing, and transports), (2) Territoriality: from an environmental perspective, a key tool for land use planning in the Mexican regulation is the Ecological Management Plan (POEL) (unfortunately, not all the cities, including La Paz, have this plan), (3) Institutional capacity and multilevel articulation: with respect to planning of emergency prevention and management, the municipality does not have a document that marks the protocols to be followed before and after extreme events at the level of coordination of government agencies and private and social sectors, and (4) Multi–stakeholder analysis: social cohesion is very positive for the resilience of the cities and should be strengthened through awareness and organization of citizens (also a space for dialogue between society and the state must exist).