Mexico city.
A Master Plan that improves air quality.
Integrated planning can improve the quality of life of urban dwellers. But, can urban planners save human lives?
We believe they can. Especially after working with Mexico City Government (CDMX) in the adaptation of Urban Performance.
The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development reciently published a report in 2018 explaining that more than 2600 premature deaths per year can be attributed to high concentrations of PM2.5 in Mexico City. In the past, CDMX has implemented several sectoral measures for improving air quality. But in 2018, the Secretariat of Environment is taking a different approach: integrated urban planning. The Secretariat organized a series of workshops and lead the adaptation of Urban Performance to Mexico City, which gathers the vision of housing, transportation, public space, water and waste management authorities.
–What’s all this people doing here? Nowdays everyone is an urban planner–, said one of the participants in the workshop.
–Yes. That is exactly the idea–, replied one of the organizers.
The group of stakeholders proposed an integrated plan, and found that commuting-related PM2.5 emmisions could be cut by 40% as compared to a business as usual scenario, if the integrated plan is implemented. With this, integrated urban planning is potentially, saving lives. Additionaly, the group found potential improvements in 6 other criteria pollutants, GHG emissions and energy consumption, as well as savings in infraestructure and maintaniance costs.