The conservation of geosites in a region can foster its sustainability and develop geotourism. These geosites provide geoeducation, raise people’s awareness on natural hazards, and increase their resilience. Low-income cities located in tectonically active areas combine high geohazards with high vulnerability and low sustainability. Geosites in these cities should be a tool to decrease people’s vulnerability and foster sustainable development. Mexico City is an ideal case study for its environmental and social issues and its setting in an active continental volcanic arc. The 1700-year-old Xitle volcano, located in the city’s SW corner, is a small scoria cone that erupted once, feeding an extensive lava field on which > 600,000 people now live. The lavas are very well exposed due to thin soils and extensive quarrying. The Xitle lavas covered the first urban center in the Mexico basin, except for the main pyramid that has become a major archeological site. The cone and lavas have significant geodiversity, sustaining a unique and biodiverse ecosystem. The country’s largest university preserves the lavas in an ecological reserve. We describe four exceptional geosites, assess their values, and discuss their relevance for addressing issues such as nature preservation, environmental sustainability, social inequalities, and natural hazards. The Xitle volcano provides a wide range of benefits for the city that are nonetheless unknown to its inhabitants. We describe ongoing initiatives to disseminate such information, such as the Geopedregal site, and propose ways that this heritage could be further protected and used by the city in a sustainable way.

一个地区的地质遗址保护可以促进其可持续性并发展地质旅游。这些地理位置可提供地理教育，提高人们对自然灾害的认识并增强其适应能力。处于构造活动区的低收入城市将高地质灾害与高脆弱性和低可持续性结合在一起。这些城市的地理位置应成为减少人们的脆弱性并促进可持续发展的工具。墨西哥城是其环境和社会问题以及活跃的大陆火山弧环境的理想案例研究。坐落在城市西南角的具有1700年历史的锡特尔火山是一个喷发的小型圆锥形圆锥体，为广阔的熔岩田提供了养料，现在有60万人居住。由于薄薄的土壤和广泛的采石，熔岩暴露得非常好。Xitle熔岩覆盖了墨西哥盆地的第一个城市中心，但主要的金字塔已成为主要的考古遗址。锥体和熔岩具有显着的地球多样性，维持了独特的生物多样性生态系统。该国最大的大学将熔岩保存在生态保护区中。我们描述了四个特殊的地理位置，评估了它们的价值，并讨论了它们与解决诸如自然保护，环境可持续性，社会不平等和自然灾害等问题的相关性。希特尔火山为该市提供了广泛的好处，但其居民仍不知道。我们描述了正在进行的传播此类信息的举措，例如Geopedregal站点，并提出了一些方法，可以以可持续的方式进一步保护和利用城市遗产。