Mexico City has been facing a huge urban growth during the 20th
century. The megacity is currently concentrating 19% of Mexico's
population. Due to the location of the city in a high-altitude
basin at 2200 m, surrounded by mountains (up to 5000 m), the
emitted pollutants are poorly dispersed by winds. The large
accumulation of atmospheric gases and aerosols often creates
extreme pollution events. This issue led the local and national
authorities to implement, over the last two decades, different
strategies to reduce the emission of pollutants (e.g. introduction
of driving restrictions based on the emissions levels, relocation
of industries, modernization of public transportation, among
others). The success of policies implemented by the city
depends heavily on two conditions: the verification of their
effectiveness, and public information.
Our project, entitled Mexico City’s Regional Carbon
Impacts (MERCI-CO2) aims at the
deployment of a dense network of CO2 sensors within the Mexico
City metropolitan area (MCMA) representing 21 millions of
inhabitants according to the last census. The emissions of the
city generate CO2 concentration gradients between the city and
outskirt, which represent the basic information that we will
interpret with the help of a mesoscale model to independently
estimate the MCMA emissions.