Digital platform for disaster resilience in Mexico

For strengthening disaster resilience and risk analysis in Mexico, in November 2023, the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) installed a web platform containing digital maps with the spatial distribution of natural hazards that frequently impact Mexico City and other exposed communities in this country. This digital web platform is called “Information System of Hazards and Risk” (Sistema de Información de Peligros y Riesgos, in Spanish; SISPER UNAM) and it is based on a Geographical Information System (GIS) with more than 500 shapefile and raster layers. At present, the following hazards are considered: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, mass movement processes, forest fires, and land subsidence. Also, the platform has data of recent hurricanes that have impacted Mexico. There are plans to include information regarding anthropogenic hazards in the near future. The spatial distribution of social vulnerability was determined using thirteen indicators from data of the 2020 Mexican Census of Population and Housing. Vulnerability, hazard, and risk were classified from 1 to 5, where 1 is low and 5 very high. Population and critical facilities (hospitals, schools, telecommunication facilities, churches, etc.) are considered as exposed elements. By superimposing the calculated GIS’s raster of the social vulnerability over individual hazard rasters, we estimated the spatial distribution of the “likelihood of social risk” for specific hazards. Seismic structural risk was estimated by modeling the expected impact of large subduction and cortical earthquakes (M > 7). The system is open to researchers and students, and it is a working tool for local authorities in their urban development programs including strengthening the local public policies for disaster reduction, prevention, and resilience. At present, more than 500 users access recurrently the platform, mainly from Mexico. However, there are also users from the United States, China, and France, among other countries.