Mexico City's record-breaking rainy season caused widespread flooding, turning avenues into rivers, submerging cars and collapsing public transport. Intensified rainfall interacts with inadequate drainage systems, rapid urban population growth and severe land subsidence to amplify damage and disruption. The subsidence stems largely from decades of excessive groundwater extraction and the compressible soft lake sediments of the Valley of Mexico. Historical construction practices reflect long-standing recognition of unstable ground. The basin topography traps runoff in the city center, concentrating floodwaters during summer storms. Ongoing urban water demand and infrastructure shortfalls continue to deepen subsidence and elevate flood risk for millions.
Mexico City's record-breaking rainy season has exposed the capital's vulnerability to flooding. Images of avenues as rivers, submerged cars and collapsed public transport have reignited the debate over the factors that put a megalopolis of more than 20 million inhabitants in check every time the rains reach their summer climax. Added to the impact of climate change, the city's poor drainage system, excessive population growth and rapid subsidence all play a decisive role in heightening the risk.
Mexico City is the most extreme reported case of subsidence in the world, explains Dario Solano Rojas, a scientist at the UNAM's Faculty of Engineering. Solano has dedicated the last decade to studying the subsidence of the capital, a phenomenon caused by the overextraction of groundwater and aggravated by the movement of the lake soil on which the city was built.
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