Socio-Environmental Vulnerability Assessment in a Multi-Source Polluted Region: A Case Study of Mezquital Valley, Central Mexico

The conjunction of intensive agricultural and industrial activities has resulted in high accumulations of pollutants in the most exposed geographical areas worldwide. An integrated approach is proposed for the case study of Mezquital Valley, Mexico, a region affected by several sources of pollution. The spatial assessment of concentration levels of pollutants was done by a) grouping them by clusters, b) exploring the geographic accessibility to each group of pollution sources, c) analyzing vulnerability to pollution based on the social point of view, d) estimating the citizen perception of the pollution effects. The following highlights were found: a) The highest contamination levels were found in the group of heavy metals. b) Among the pollution clusters or components that reach a higher geographic incidence, the component related to the processing of oils, lubricants, and products for the automotive industry was the most accessible to the population in a range of 2115.5 km². c) Vulnerability indexes are higher in the northern area, with levels of up to 4.9, while the average value is 0.002. d) 41 localities were found with high socio-environmental vulnerability according to metrics on vulnerability, \(\:P{I}_{i}\), \(\:PI\)n, and HM.