Flooding, subsidence and drainage:

Agreements and divergences in the diagnosis of Mexico City's hydraulic problems in the 1950s.

Abstract

During the early 1950s, Mexico City, the capital of the country, was affected by floods with serious social and economic consequences. These events were a trigger for the generation of plans and policies related to water management and infrastructure by governmental entities.Specialists in the hydrology of the basin in which the city is located and of its soil played an important role in diagnosing the causes of the floods, providing guidelines for the development of new hydraulic infrastructure to support the urban modernization of the rapidly growing city.Far from there being a single point of view, different conceptions of the hydrological imbalance of the basin in the context of population and urban expansion emerged, as well as "different proposals for the type of hydraulic works required. This paper examines the nature and scope of the participation of specialists in the definition of hydraulic policies and projects in the period between 1950 and 1966.