Spatial reconfiguration of the city of manzanillo, mexico: In a globalized economy, 1980 to 2010

Abstract

Manzanillo is a city of great relevance in Mexico, the port of the same name, the most important in the country, registers an economic dynamism derived mainly from its port activity of international scope and to a lesser extent from tourist, gas, mining, energy, and thermoelectric; which altogether has generated the arrival of people in search of work and originated a spatial growth that has culminated in an irregular reconfiguration, environmental and social problems. The research is based on Location Theories and the Economic Base. The purpose of the work is to measure the spatial transformations of the port city and the relationship with the demographic increase and economic activities. A mixed qualitative–quantitative methodology is applied to obtain cartographic inputs to fill the lack of these, which allow to objectively show spatial changes and have elements to explain the various logics expressed; expansive process analyzed by decades from 1980 to 2010 of each one, significant aspects are exposed. It is concluded that conflicts have originated fundamentally in the unbalanced spatial growth of the city, congestion in roads where the railway is the protagonist and pressure from the port to expand the enclosure.