Exploring digital co-management of flood risk reduction in Mexico City, Mexico: conditions and potentials

Mobile applications to manage disaster risks have been gaining more and more acceptance internationally. Mexico City has not been the exception and in the last five years its production and use by the government has increased. However, the main function of these applications has been merely informative and the role of inhabitants basically passive. This has been the case of communication and information technologies in the case of floods. Therefore, the objective of this work was to identify the potential and the conditions for the development and use of mobile applications to manage flood risk in Mexico City in a co-management context, as a result of a long-term research project. From two case studies, the most important functions in the voice of the population were identified from interviews and focus groups and later these functions were systematized and intended to be technified in a mobile application. The process allowed us to see the potential of digital co-management of flood risk supported by technology, and at the same time, to identify the different conditioning factors. On the one hand, among the most important potentials are the optimization of resources and the possible reduction of losses during floods. Similarly, it was observed that a co-production process with the population at risk increases the probability of acceptance of the technology. But on the other hand, various spatial, administrative, legislative and technical factors were identified that condition the use of this type of technology at the local level, such as the difficulties imposed by the territorial scale, and the administrative interlinks within the several dependencies responsible for both, risk management and for the production of mobile applications, for which recommendations are proposed.