Urban Flood Management and Hydrometeorologic Alert System. Rio Sabinal, Mexico

This paper is about managing floods and how to identify the appropriate flood management strategy in urban zones in Mexican cities, in order to choose the most appropriate, according to the natural parameters and the available information. Moreover, the most appropriate local flood management strategy will often with a combination of information and measures. Dams have proved to be effective in reducing floods on rivers.

Floodplains have competitive advantages over other areas of land and therefore have always been centers for human settlements. Many zones of Mexico floodplains have been heavily modified by the human intervention which causes environmental damage. In Mexico there are a lot of vulnerable areas of population. Usually, the most appropriate management strategy will involve a combination of approaches. Some of the structural solutions are: source control dikes, land use control, etc.

In this paper is presented a methodology that uses 2D numerical modeling to obtain maps which should indicate the critical characteristics of flood hazard, such as the depth and velocity flooding, floodways and storages areas. An application case is in southern Mexico, in Tuxtla Gutierrez City. The Sabinal River crosses the city from east to west, almost 16 km, and it generates many problems of frequent flooding. The modeling in 2D gives information for taking sustainable flood management strategies.

Another option includes non-structural infrastructure, like the Hydrometeorologic Alert System, developed specifically for this zone of study using the Sabinal river´s hydraulic numerical modeling.