THE SOCIAL DISASTER RISK CONSTRUCTION IN VOLCANIC HILLSIDES: THE CHIQUIHUITE CASE AT MEXICO CITY

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the social construction of disaster risk due to landslides on volcanic hillsides, a common phenomenon in Latin American cities in recent decades. The population growth often takes place on the peripherical areas of cities, given the proliferation of irregular human settlements, that occupy a landscape of hillsides and steep slopes, formed by domes of ancient extinct volcanoes, known colloquially as 'cerros', (hills) as their ancestral toponyms have lost. Consequently, the meanings of these reliefs, have been lost in the collective memory, which denote their morphological or ceremonial qualities. Taking as a case study the 'Cerro del Chiquihuite' volcano, in the Sierra de Guadalupe, which delimits Mexico City, the capital of the Mexican Republic at its northern end, the historical, cultural and spatial dimensions involved in the vulnerability’s creation are explored, whose understanding is part of comprehensive risk management and can help us prevent or reduce disaster risks. The hermeneutical method, geographic information systems and field visits are used, as well as a comprehensive approach to landscape heritage, to show how development models and irregular settlements are closely related to the risks construction.