Alteración del clima en el valle de México tras cinco siglos de deterioro ambiental

Abstract

The aim of this work is to describe some climate alterations caused by environmental deterioration on the surrounding valley of Mexico City (the most populated zone of mexican central highlands), whose effects are noticeable by human comfort perception, such as humidity, solar radiation, and temperature. We have no quantitative evidences, but it’s possible to compare qualitative climate conditions from 16th to 21th centuries. In pre columbian times, almost all daily life at Mexico central valley was developed on outdoor spaces. Just a few activities took place inside indoor spaces. Precolumbian architecture is not renowned because its interior design, but by its landscape architecture. Colonial times imposed a new way to conceive quotidian life. European influences preferred indoor spaces; therefore, daily activities and open spaces started losing contact and landscape became a secondary item. Later, lake dessication and massive wood destruction processes started, accelerating along the centuries and reaching its highest point at the end of the 20th century, when metropolitan urban growing of Mexico City was out of control. Now, a vicious circle is the sovereign ruler of the valley: environmental deterioration and unpleasant, low quality outdoors instigate architects and builders to produce more isolated, indoor spaces, with more negative effects on environmental quality. Historic testimonies, ancient names of places and other evidences can describe lost environmental qualities as humidity, solar radiation and temperature, all of them substantially modified during the past five centuries. It’s possible to asseverate that in the 16th century some environmental features -now extinguished produced good conditions for outdoor daily life.