Background and objectives:

The Municipality of Miguel Hidalgo, within the Mexico City Federal District, includes both high and very low-income neighborhoods, hence very heterogeneous, that are affected by the increase of urban density and the sprawl of commercial activities. The municipality requested UN-HABITAT technical support to update the local urban plan, using participatory planning approaches based on verifiable critical information database. Specific objectives include:

• To systematize critical information organizing a verifiable database for public consultation
•  To update urban zoning and building parameters, in consultation with civil society representatives actually living in those areas
• To promote integrated development of those areas with their neighboring districts.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Collection of available information and critical data for selected neighborhoods;
• Technical sessions with government staff and consultation workshops with civil society representatives;
• Presentation of innovative assessment technologies combining urban development and economic growth issues and evidences.

Results:
The results so far have been:

• Critical information collected, analyzed and systematized, packaged as a database to be reorganized under a GIS framework;
• Assessment and diagnosis of selected areas prepared and being discussed with affected communities and the municipal (“Delegación”) government.