Speaking at an event to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the National Water Commission (Conagua), President Enrique Peña Nieto announced that the government has allocated 170 million dollars towards modernizing the National Meteorological Service (Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, SMN).
The modernization will include establishing a National Hurricane Agency to coordinate hazard prediction, prevention and mitigation actions with state and municipal authorities to reduce the impacts of natural climatic hazard events.
Ironically, the 2013 season (shown) was the first Atlantic hurricane season since 1994 to end with no major hurricanes.
In related news, the government has also announced that progress is being made in compiling a National Atlas of Risks. The Atlas is an interactive GIS database containing details of settlements, soils, rivers, dams, highways, rail lines, river basins, oil fields, and many other factors related to the assessment of vulnerability and risk. Due to be completed by 2016, it will help all three levels of government (municipal, state, federal) decide how best to allocate hazard mitigation resources and improve the accuracy of risk assessments utilized in future planning decisions.
Related posts:
- In which months are hurricanes most likely to strike Mexico?
- Mexican geophysicists develop new model for hurricane forecasting
- Mexico battered by massive storms from both east and west (September 2013)
- The Teziutlán disaster of 5 October 1999, a case study of vulnerability
- Progress made in Tabasco’s flood control plan
- Examples of high risk settlements located near Pemex pipelines
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