Resilient civic design evaluation criteria for response capacity within a seismic risk context in Santiago, Chile. The case of residential communities affected by the San Ramón fault

Abstract

In recent decades, Santiago, Chile has seen a substantial increase in urbanized areas along its eastern Andean foothills, where the seismic San Ramón Fault is also located. This has created a new geological risk scenario. Using the unquestionable appeal of the natural setting, the panoramic view of the city, and a healthier environment, housing projects have been promoted that coexist with this seismic risk, something that seems to have been disregarded by communal and metropolitan planning instruments. This article aims to conceptualize resilient civic design as a matrix of evaluation criteria to be applied in communities affected by the San Ramón Fall as a capacity to respond to seismic risk. For this, a qualitative approach is applied through an analysis matrix of urban resilience indicators that considers four action dimensions -natural, built, social and urban regulations-to identify critical situations in the sectors studied, including official data analysis, mapping techniques, and interviews with long-standing residents. As the main results there are three key points to redefine the role of 1) urban communities exposed to seismic risk, 2) the built space in seismic risk response capacity, and 3) the communities’ role as crucial urban actors and decision-makers, which also expand civic design approach from natural, built and social environment dimensions. It is concluded that communities' experiences under extreme seismic risk conditions are illustrative, both for including risk management in communal and metropolitan urban regulations and considering the Andean foothills in a resilient way, recognizing the San Ramón Fault as a new base criterion of urban planning.