Sustainable Cities and Urban Morphology in Arid and Semi-Arid Climates of Mexico

This chapter addresses the urban form of three Mexican cities in areas with arid and semi-arid climates, considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established in the 2030 Agenda. The aim is to analyze the urban form of cities and its relationship with the targets set in SDG 11, which refers to cities and communities to make them inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. For this, three Mexican cities with similar characteristics were compared: Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and León, with 1.59, 1.27, and 1.9 million inhabitants, respectively. The elements considered for this analysis were natural conditions where they are located, the routes that give origin and shape to the city, and their containment polygons. With the above, it was possible to identify that the form of cities plays a vital role in a town being inclusive, resilient, and sustainable by determining the physical order that directly affects the accessibility and, therefore, the physical structure of the city, which in turn governs the practical use of resources.