City of three rivers. The social construction of flood risk in Culiacán, Sinaloa

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this article is to analyze the relation ship between flood hazard, local risk perception, and social vulnerability in Culiacan, Sinaloa, due to its geography and the city’s distribution along multiple bodies of water. The ethnography focuses on three vulnerable neighborhoods in the city which have been affected by two tropical cyclones five years apart. The methodology included the analysis of risk atlases and interviews with government officials and the affected people. The study’s contribution is to highlight the lack of flood hazard reduction strategies in urban planning and citizen awareness based on social risk perception. The main finding is that there is no updated flood plan or risk atlas; concluding that economic and sociocultural factors shape the habitability of flood areas, compared to a State that also does not know the risks.