Lack of water in Mexico City and its peri-urban area has been an increasingly worrying matter in the last years and has been addressed through multiple government and NGOs initiatives such as: supplemental delivery via water trucks, rainwater harvesting, intermittence in water services and pipeline network maintenance. However, the fast and unordered development of the urban spot has exacerbated the problem, making these solutions unsuccessful.Due to the complexity of the problem, solutions may impact as they focus on fixing or creating effective interactions among the elements of the system, interactions in which the main element is the user. Therefore, this paper presents the design proposal that arises from the observations made in Mexico City, which served as the space problem, exploring the process that was followed using Design Thinking by understanding the users’ needs and the interaction of the agents, through three main phases: Approach and definition of the problem, definition and construction of critical element prototypes and final solution.Through these phases, the team visited communities in the surroundings of Mexico’s Valley to understand and empathize with the different needs that people could have. This was then integrated in personas that embody the findings and necessities that were identified. Afterwards, prototypes were built in order to test the ideas with different users that belong to our immediate space. This stage allowed the team to diverge but at the same time was the starting point for defining the final proposal; taking into consideration that guaranteeing water access was the main goal followed by information related to quality.The final design proposal is integrated by a pod with electronics that is tossed into the water reservoir. The pod collects data such as water level (availability) and TDS measurement (quality) that are sent to a double ended platform that can be used by household users as well as water truck companies; guaranteeing that people will not be left without water and increasing market presence for water delivery enterprises.The proposal and the research results could be used and extrapolated to other cities and communities around the world, as water availability and quality are a worldwide challenge and can be tackled in similar ways. Moreover, it can be useful for developing other platforms that include Internet of Things, algorithms and Neural Networks from Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence towards Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities in order to fulfill the needs of the population.

Enhancing Access to Water in Mexico City and Its Peri-Urban Area Through User Centered Design

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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