Institutional innovation in water management : the case of Mexico City's recharge wells
Name
670239496-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
11.58 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
498712fe9dcbf6275d88ce9c911e948d
Author(s)
Correa Ibargüengoitia, José Antonio
Advisor(s)
Diane E. Davis.
Alternative Title
Mexico City's recharge wells
Date Issued
2010
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis explores the difference in adoption patterns of water recharge well technology in Mexico City both by local entities and the central city government. The research finds that this technology, originally designed by the central city with the stated purpose of aiding aquifer recharge, was adopted by local entities driven by concerns over flood control. Geophysical realities, complemented by political and socioeconomic factors, are key in deciding the use and type of infiltration technology by local entities. Water policy priorities at the local level are a decidedly local affair, which makes coordination difficult and thus constitutes a challenge for sustainable water management in Mexico City as a whole. Ineffective formal coordination mechanisms among the three levels of government, and the incentives that explain the uneven adoption of recharge wells by local communities, suggest an alternative approach to metropolitan water governance. In addition to traditional solutions such as regulation and formal metropolitan cooperation bodies, a third path of sustainable water management would involve a division of tasks between high and lower local level governments. Levels of government with the resources and incentives to develop technologies with systemic impacts and that address immediate needs can then "market" or "scale down" these solutions to localities whose incentive structure would lead them to, in effect, implement these solutions. In this way, collective action problems could be sidelined at the metropolitan scale.
Description
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-125).
Subjects
Urban Studies and Planning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
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