Flooding in high risk zones in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, a paradigm shifts to watershed management and urban disasters

Abstract

Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, has experienced accelerated urban growth since the year 2000, which has led to a change in land use and a decrease in recharge to aquifers, resulting in a considerable increase in points vulnerable to flooding. The positive and negative effects are two sides of the same coin, on the one hand, the proclaim excessive policies that seek to privatize water resources, and the other, to provide water to concessionaries in an excessive manner. The paradigm shift seen from the perspective of watershed management is precisely to solve environmental problems and associate them with urban hydrology projects, hydraulic infrastructure or a combination of these, with the aim of not modifying water courses and streams. The objective of this work is to determine peak flows for return period of 50 to 100 years, by means of probabilistic and statistical models and to identify through topographic cartography the annual periodic floods in the lower part of the basin, as results is to present a series of alternatives of solution through hydraulic works: channel rectification, silt removal works, to mention just a few.