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This paper presents a characterization of water services as public services which purpose should be to generate public value. The case of the Monterrey's Metropolitan Area is analyzed; this case shows the complexity in creating public values for the social, financial and environmental sustainability of water services. Particularly, we analyze universal access, equity for consumption and affordability of water tariffs as public values for the social sustainability of water services. One of the main findings is that efficient water services utilities not necessarily generate public values. The case study shows a clear differentiation in water services access between urban and rural areas; different levels of consumption by income level; affordability; and a persistent loss of water in the water networks. All these aspects affect significantly the generation of public value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the concept of environmental policy integration, qualitative expert interview and participative mapping, this paper focuses on the causes and consequences of environmental impacts on mangroves triggered by ill-coordinated public policies at México's southern Pacific coast. In this context, we identified not only the specific measures applied by governmental institutions and their impacts, but also other crucial political, socioeconomic, and environmental factors, which determined the scale and spatial extension of ecosystem degradation. As a result, public policies lacking environmental integration, particularly stream straightening and incentives to promote the production of biofuel made form African oil palms, were the decisive triggers, but not the sole agents of mangroves' degradation. The scale and spatial extension of observed impacts rather depend on multiply factors, not necessarily related to public policies. Moreover, an explicitly spatial dimension to the qualitative results is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a significant correlation between energy subsidies in Mexico and some dimensions of sustainable development. In this sense are analyzed the CO2 emissions, subsidies per capita energy sector, the annual growth rate of gdp, electricity consumption per capita and the production of equivalent fossil fuel energy. This research has been between the 2004-2010 period in the recent history of that country. Finally the results are studied and also are established different recommendations related to energy policy and even are presented some possible future research lines in this entire topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metropolization phenomenon was increased in the last decades in the Latin American middle cities. Traditionally the metropolitan area is delimited by its political structure, each peripheral locality immersed in these geographical areas show dissimilar socioeconomic characteristics depending on their location, that is to say, with own characteristics of gravitation. Therefore, this paper presents a discussion of some international methodologies in the definition of metropolitan areas and proposes a probabilistic model approach to choose the most influential localities in its suburbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]