Manufacturing Industry location and Urban Planning in Mexico. An intraurban spatial analysis.

Keywords: industrial location, urban planning, land use, clustering, dispersion
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Since the 20th Century, Mexican cities have developed following distinct economic models promoting industrialization. At the national and regional scale, Industrial Location Theories have backed studies aiming to explain the spatial distribution of such activities based on economies of scale, agglomeration, and access to markets and infrastructure. However, at the intraurban level, only some studies have explored the spatial logic behind the distribution of such activities.

This paper utilizes spatial statistics to analyze the distribution of the manufacturing industry at the intraurban scale. The present study aims to understand whether the spatial distribution of manufacturing industrial activity matches or mismatches with the logic of spatial ordering established within urban planning instruments. This comparison becomes relevant in light of a renewed debate around the effect of the manufacturing sector on Mexican cities' urban development.

The study focuses on Mexico City, the nation's capital, which in the 20th Century experienced massive population growth and expansion of its urbanized area due to an intense industrialization process. The research relies on information from the Mexican Directory of Economic Units, the Mexican Census, and geographic data on assessed land values and normative land uses. The study aims to shed light on the spatial interactions generated between manufacturing industrial activity, normative land uses, and assessed land values through clustering and dispersion analyses.

This ongoing research aims to provide initial findings, serve as a basis for further analysis of industrialization's historical development, and expand our understanding of the local effects associated with the location of manufacturing activities.