Dario Solano Rojas

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | UNAM · Department of Geological Engineering

Differential ground subsidence associated with groundwater extraction can damage urban infrastructure and housing, producing important economic risk and losses. This paper assessed the economic risk due to differential subsidence in Mexico City. To obtain the economic risk maps, we applied a three-stage methodology. In the first stage, we computed...

Land subsidence occurs when fluids are withdrawn from the subsurface, causing lowering of the ground elevation. Inadequate management of groundwater resources, where extraction exceeds the natural recharge, has led to overexploitation of aquifer systems worldwide, generating compaction and, therefore, land subsidence. Over urban areas, land subside...

In February 2023, a long seismic sequence began in western Mexico City causing widespread panic and some damage to housing infrastructure. On May 11 and December 14, two Mw3.2 mainshocks occurred at less than 700 m depth. Unprecedented satellite interferograms captured tectonic deformations in the two epicentral zones during the days surrounding th...

Land subsidence rates in Mexico City reach 500 mm/year, causing progressive damage to the city’s core infrastructure, including the Metro system. A deadly overpass collapse in 2021, along a Metro line that had operated for less than 10 years, brought subsidence-related structural damage to the attention of the system’s authorities and led to major...

The increased need for water resources in urban sprawls and intense droughts has forced more aggressive groundwater extraction resulting in numerous urban areas undergoing land subsidence. In most cases, only some large metropolitan areas have been well-characterized for subsidence. However, there is no existing country-wide assessment of urban are...

The sediments underneath Mexico City have unique mechanical properties that give rise to strong site effects. We investigated temporal changes in the seismic velocity at strong-motion and broadband seismic stations throughout Mexico City, including sites with different geologic characteristics ranging from city center locations situated on lacustri...

The subsurface materials of Ciudad de México have unique mechanical properties that give rise to strong site effects. We investigated temporal changes in the seismic velocity at strong-motion and broad-band seismic stations throughout Mexico City, including sites with different geologic characteristics ranging from city center locations situated on...

Land subsidence and associated faulting have affected Mexico City (CDMX), Mexico, for more than 100 years. However, despite the extensive research on land subsidence in CDMX, very few investigations focus on characterizing its socioeconomic risk due to land subsidence. In this article, we present Mexico City’s socioeconomic risk map due to land sub...

We present a Risk Atlas of Mexico City based on a Geographical Information System (RA-GIS). We identified the prevalent social risk to the more relevant hazards in Mexico City (CDMX): earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, forest fires, and land subsidence. A total of 274 shape-file maps were generated in this project. Seismic hazard...

This work presents a methodology for the statistical validation of discontinuity surfaces obtained from point clouds using digital photogrammetry from drones. Our methodology allows you to review the quality of the data obtained with photogrammetry and decide whether these measurements are representative of the discontinuity surfaces that they anal...

We present a Geographical-Information-System-based Risk Atlas (GIS-RA) of Mexico City, Mexico. The main purposes are to provide a local-government level tool for implementing preventive and remedial actions useful for land-use development plans and to strengthen the culture for disaster prevention. We identified the prevalent social risk to the mor...

Many areas worldwide are known to experience land subsidence due to groundwater extraction. It is traditionally assumed that subsidence extent and rates are controlled by groundwater extraction locations and volumes. Here, we reevaluate this assumption in the Mexico City metropolitan area by combining stratigraphic, hydrologic, geodetic, and demogr...

Stress accumulation on the plate interface of subduction zones is a key parameter that controls the location, timing and rupture characteristics of earthquakes. The diversity of slip processes occurring in the megathrust indicates that stress is highly variable in space and time. Based on GPS and InSAR data, we study in depth the evolution of the i...

Ground displacements due to changes in soil conditions represent a threat to the stability of civil structures in many urban areas, worldwide. In fast-subsiding areas, regional subsidence (wavelength ~ 1,000's m) can be dominantly high and, consequently, mask other signals at local scales (wavelength ~ 10-100's m). Still, engineering and constructi...

Detecting and mapping subsidence is currently supported by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) products. However, several factors, such as band-dependent processing, noise presence, and strong subsidence limit the use of InSAR for assessing differential subsidence, which can lead to ground instability and damage to infrastructure. In t...

Mexico City, a large megacity with over 21 million inhabitants, is exposed to several hazards, including land subsidence, earthquakes, and flooding. Hazard assessments for each hazard type is typically treated separately and usually do not include considerations for any relations among the hazards. Our data makes it plausible for an earthquake trig...

Land subsidence is a phenomenon present in several cities in central Mexico, and results from a combination of groundwater resources' overexploitation and the local stratigraphic nature. Furthermore, subsidence occurs inhomogeneously in space, producing differential vertical displacements, which affect both the natural media, as well as human-built...

Ground subsidence has affected Mexico City for over a century, as a result of its large urban expansion and aggressive groundwater extraction rates. The continuous subsidence results in severe damage to urban infrastructure and civil structures. This work is aimed towards a better recognition of subsidence as a major hazard in Mexico, assess the nu...

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has become a valuable tool for surface deformation monitoring, including land subsidence associated with groundwater extraction. Another useful tools for studying Earth's surface processes are geophysical methods such as Gravimetry. In this work we present the application of InSAR analysis and gravim...

El proceso de subsidencia en la zona metropolitana de la Ciudad de México ha sido reconocido desde principios del siglo pasado y sus efectos tienen graves consecuencias para la operación y mantenimiento de la infraestructura de la ciudad. En este trabajo se presentan las velocidades de subsidencia del terreno obtenidas de Dispersores Persistentes (...

The process of land subsidence in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area has been recognized since the beginning of the last century and poses severe challenges for the operation and maintenance of the city's infrastructure. In this work we present land subsidence velocity results from Persistent Scatterers (PSs) through a SqueeSAR interferometric analy...

The process of land subsidence in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area has been recognized since the beginning of the last century and poses severe challenges for the operation and maintenance of the city's infrastructure. In this work we present land subsidence velocity results from Persistent Scatterers (PSs) through a SqueeSAR interferometric analy...