Multidimensional Characterization of Periurban Transects: Mexican Case Study

Abstract

The objective of this essay is to report the establishment of the variables that define and characterize a Mexican peri-urban transect. This is based on urban theory and the literary review from 2015 to 2021 of peri-urban areas in India, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Thanks to this, the words "transect" and "peri-urban" were defined. This allowed us to establish characteristics that identify a peri-urban area in Mexico. Here, mobility, land use, demographics, well-being and socioeconomic aspects were considered as dimensions that need to be investigated and whose parameters would have to be addressed both from a theoretical and a practical basis. To define the peri-urban transect, we began with the analysis of five dimensions through eleven indicators. The results show that 62.4% of the locations in the Mexican Republic are peri-urban. This analysis allows us to have a first approach to the peri-urban definition. The first results are shown in this work; however, it is observed that the definition is not absolute because there are different types of peri-urbanity. This work is part of the "P-70: Validation of the strategy for empowering the use of solar energy" project of the “Centro Mexicano de Innovación en Energía Solar (CeMIE-Sol)”. It's a social innovation project whose general objective is to develop an empowerment strategy for everyone through the use of solar energy, from human rights and gender approaches; and to characterize and evaluate the sociotechnical potential of the use of technologies of solar energy (active and passive) within the different socioeconomic transects in Mexico. So the first step is to define what peri-urbanity consists of.