Latin American Metropolitan Research Articles

Urban agroecology enhances agrobiodiversity and resilient, biocultural food systems. The case of the semi-dryland and medium-sized Querétaro City, Mexico

Small-scale agroecological practices in the urban areas of Querétaro, México, as in other mid-sized cities, could maintain agrobiodiversity pools and sufficient productivity for a food sovereignty baseline. The application of agroecological principles fosters agrobiodiversity and socio-ecological resilience in urban food production. Emerging urban gardens result from an immediate necessity for food that does not appear in local statistics, nor is there any account of them in any cadastral source or land register of Querétaro City. Based on studies of 28 urban gardens, we survey and analyze farming practices using socio-ecological resilience methodologies and the Diagnostic Survey of Agroecological Practices. We find that the agroecological management of urban gardens results in significantly more species richness than in conventionally managed plots, likely due to the multifunctional purposes associated with biocultural memory. The number of social actors participating in agroecological management is increasing. It represents an urban strategy of resilience that contributes to enhancing the microclimate and nutrient cycling, as well as to improving water management and biodiversity. Results also indicate that gardens of approximately 200 m2 harbor the highest levels of agrobiodiversity. This area size for home vegetable production appears optimal for user-friendly management practices in urban settings and could represent the minimum benchmark for a family and a goal for urban planning and policy recommendations. Urban gardens contribute to the adaptive capacities of city dwellers to enhance their food security and sovereignty. Therefore, given that 70% of the national population face some level of food insecurity, we argue that, along with the protection of land-use rights, the promotion of a diverse urban landscape could improve long-term socio-ecological and food supply resilience. Additionally, urban gardens promote neighborhood social inclusion and affordable access to food. The empirical results and insights from this study in Querétaro can inform land-use policies for urban agriculture more broadly, especially in Latin American metropolitan areas.

Analysing the treatment of environmental justice and nature-based solutions in the Urban Climate Action Plans of Latin American metropolitan areas

ABSTRACT Urban Climate Action Plans are instruments increasingly being used by governments to identify vulnerabilities and propose technological, engineered and ecosystem-based actions for adapting to and mitigating climate change effects. However, as the outcomes of the climate response could asymmetrically affect marginalised communities already more impacted by climate-related hazards, researchers and practitioners have expressed concerns regarding the lack of attention given to the environmental justice (EJ) implications of climate action planning. In this context, this study uses content analysis to review the inclusion and framing of EJ concerns in Urban Climate Action Plans from 30 Latin American cities as a less studied and particularly vulnerable world region. Moreover, we investigate whether and how these documents translate justice concerns into concrete strategies, with particular emphasis given to the use of Nature-based solutions. We found that, through the years, the concerns related to EJ are more prominent but are rarely concretised into specific actions. When they are, these actions are less framed within systemic policy interventions and more into educational and capacity-building strategies. Finally, most planning documents frame Nature-based solutions for biodiversity conservation purposes, forgoing the opportunity to adopt the socially transformative potential of the term for enhancing sustainable and just futures.

Accessibility Indicators for the Geographical Assessment of Transport Planning in a Latin American Metropolitan Area

Accessibility represents a key element in strengthening developed regions in terms of investment in transportation infrastructure. Accessibility is also an equity indicator to measure the ease with which a specific location achieves desired outcomes as well as the spillover effect; traditionally, these effects have been analyzed with econometric and engineering techniques, rather than from the perspective of geographical studies. The purpose of this research is to measure the spillover effects and the territorial cohesion of Infrastructure Regional Planning (PRI) for the Latin American metropolitan area of Concepción (MAC), Chile. To meet this purpose, locational and network efficiency indicators of spatial accessibility were calculated using network analysis in GIS. The results showed that the improvements differ according to the accessibility indicator employed; however, they generally showed benefits in consolidated urban centers and corridors near investment and industrial areas. In contrast, more distant and rural areas presented limited and irregular benefits.

Interplay between climate, pollution and COVID-19 on ST-elevation myocardial infarction in a large metropolitan region.

Collective risk factors such as climate and pollution impact on the risk of acute cardiovascular events, including ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). There is limited data however on the precise temporal and independent association between these factors and STEMI, and the potentially interacting role of government policies against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), especially for Latin America. We retrospectively collected aggregate data on daily STEMI admissions at 10 tertiary care centers in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, Argentina, from January 1, 2017 to November 30, 2020. Daily measurements for temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, and rainfall, as well as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter <10 µm (PM10), were retrieved. Exploratory analyses focused on key COVID-19-related periods (e.g. first case, first lockdown), and Stringency Index quantifying the intensity of government policy response against COVID-19. A total of 1498 STEMI occurred over 1430 days, for an average of 0.12 STEMI per center (decreasing from 0.130 in 2018 to 0.102 in 2020, P=0.016). Time series analysis showed that lower temperature and higher concentration of CO and PM10 were all significantly associated with an increased rate of STEMI (all P<0.05), whereas COVID-19 outbreak, lockdown, and stringency of government policies were all inversely associated with STEMI (all P<0.05). Notably, environmental features impacted as early as 28 days before the event (all P<0.05), even if same or prior day associations proved stronger (all P<0.05). Multivariable analysis suggested that maximum temperature (P=0.001) and PM10 (P=0.033) were the strongest predictor of STEMI, even after accounting for COVID-19-related countermeasures (P=0.043). Lower temperature and higher concentrations of CO and PM10 are associated with significant increases in the rate of STEMI in a large Latin American metropolitan area. The reduction in STEMI cases seen during the COVID-19 pandemic is at least in part mediated by improvements in pollution, especially reductions in PM10.

Closing the cycle? Potential and limitations of Water and Sanitation Safety Plans (WSSPs) for Latin American metropolitan areas

Abstract Water and sanitation management faces major challenges due to the rapid urban growth of metropolitan areas and the resulting pressure on water resources. Metropolitan areas often combine formal and informal water and sanitation services and regularly face shortages, leakages, and other situations involving risk to users and the environment. This work presents an integrated approach for the development and implementation of a Water and Sanitation Safety Plan (WSSP) for metropolitan areas, especially in developing countries. The plan allows for the assessment of all the risks associated with the components of the urban water cycle by means of a semi-quantitative approach. In the case study described, the overall risk estimated was 37.2% (44.0 and 30.3% for the drinking water supply and sanitation sub-systems, respectively). Highest risk values were obtained for components of water treatment (53.0%) and wastewater treatment (51.7%). Our assessment took into account both formal and informal sanitation components of the water and wastewater management cycle and included a multi-institutional analysis of the entire system. Results obtained may contribute to establishing new policies and guidelines for the protection of public health and the local environment in our case study and other areas of the region with similar contexts and comparable institutional settings.

Waste Political Settlements in Colombia and Chile: Power, Inequality and Informality in Recycling

ABSTRACTThere are stark differences between the waste recycling literature from the global North and that from the global South. The literature from the global North tends to focus on empirical analyses of existing municipal recycling services and rarely considers institutional factors. When it does, the theoretical approaches adopted are limited, especially regarding the role of informal institutions. In contrast, recycling literature from the global South does focus on informal institutions, but it does so by concentrating on the struggles of waste pickers rather than on the performance of waste management services provided by local authorities. This divergence in the literature suggests the need for an analytical framework that integrates institutions and recycling performance. This article analyses waste disposal regimes in two Latin American metropolitan areas, Medellín (Colombia) and Santiago (Chile), and explores the link between income inequality and recycling. It focuses on the political settlements that lie at the heart of the waste regimes. As such, waste regimes in these two cities are understood to be a product of the interplay of balances of power, institutions and distribution of benefits. The study also highlights the need to understand informal institutions as relational phenomena that affect both the rich and the poor, and not just as a subsistence strategy by the latter.

Processos de metropolização latino americanos

O presente artigo teve como objetivo ampliar as discussões sobre o processo de formação das regiões metropolitanas na América Latina, com ênfase para o processo de criação da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo – RMSP. O método adotado parte de uma pesquisa exploratória, descrevendo sobre a formação das regiões metropolitanas latino-americanas conduzido sob o auxílio de documentos oficiais (Constituições Federais, Decretos e Leis Complementares). Enquanto resultados, a autonomia das RMs fica em evidencia em todas as regiões metropolitanas pesquisadas. Outro ponto em destaque é que o planejamento regional deverá buscar respostas para os constantes desafios de desigualdades espaciais presentes nas grandes metrópoles, a serem elencados sob a seguinte forma: i) ações cooperativas entre os atores sociais e entes federados e seus intendentes, e ii) necessidade de um planejamento voltado para o desenvolvimento em conjunto dos seus municípios. Palavras-chave: Regiões Metropolitanas. Desenvolvimento Regional e Urbano. Governança Metropolitana.

The written and unwritten rules of internet exclusion: inequality, institutions and network disadvantage in cities of the Global South

ABSTRACT Studies about the link between income and Internet access tend to focus exclusively on the demand side, or, when considering the supply side, to neglect any possible role of local and informal institutions. This research pays attention to the relationship between income distribution and Internet access within metropolitan areas of the Global South, with a special emphasis on local and informal institutions that could shape the ways by which this relationship works. Using a mixed-methods approach, two Latin American metropolitan areas are analysed: Santiago (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia). Although income is clearly linked to household Internet access in both cases, there are supply-side differences that can influence the income-connectivity nexus. The author proposes to introduce the concept of ‘institutionally generated network disadvantage’. Examples of formal and informal institutional factors are redlining, informal housing, socio-spatial segregation, tax exemptions and local public provision of services. The urban poor seem to be the most affected by institutionally generated digital exclusion.

Assessing the effects of past and future land cover changes in ecosystem services, disservices and biodiversity: A case study in Barranquilla Metropolitan Area (BMA), Colombia

Urbanization is one of the most important drivers of change worldwide, with the fastest pace happening in Latin America, impacting negatively on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). In this study we evaluated the effects of past and future land cover changes in ES, ecosystem disservices (EdS) and biodiversity, in a case study in the Barranquilla Metropolitan Area (BMA), Colombia. First, we estimated ES supply and demand and EdS associated to different land covers. Then, we evaluated land cover changes across time and their impacts on ES and EdS. Finally, we reviewed the Territorial Ordering Plans (POT) to evaluate where urbanization is planned for the year 2027, and assessed the potential impacts of such POT on biodiversity and ES. We found that natural areas have diminished, resulting in the decrease of provisioning and regulating services and the increase in EdS. Urban expansion is contributing to the degradation of ES. We argue that this study contributes to understand the effects of land cover changes on biodiversity, ES and EdS around a Latin American metropolitan area, where this kind of studies are still scarce. We present broader lessons on how ES science can improve land use planning instruments.

Drought in the city: The economic impact of water scarcity in Latin American metropolitan areas

Abstract While the harmful impact of droughts is well-documented in rural areas, how droughts affect cities’ economies remains an open question. Using monthly labour force surveys from 78 cities in Latin America, we demonstrate that large sustained dry events decrease the probability of being employed, hourly wages, hours worked, and labour incomes. Informal workers are impacted the most. We highlight that the impact of droughts is larger than the impact of wet events, like those that cause floods. Health and power outages are two pathways explaining our results. Climate change will increase the occurrence of droughts, making our findings particularly relevant.

Managing the Urban Environment of Lima, Peru

This article brings the contemporary thinking and practice of Urban Environmental Management (UEM) to the solution of real problems in a major city of a developing country in Latin America. Such cities both face more immediate problems than the developed world and have fewer resources to deal with them. The study first considers the Latin American context and then reviews issues of poverty alleviation, industry, sewage and sanitation, water, energy, transportation and finance in Lima, Peru. Finally, it proposes a 5-year plan to help solve the urban environmental problems of Metropolitan Lima, an environmentally difficult, but important Latin American metropolitan area located between the Pacific Ocean and a hilly desert, utilizing a real-world database and a limited budget.

Attending to Researcher Positionality in Geographic Fieldwork on Health in Latin America: Lessons from La Costa Ecuatoriana

Attending to Researcher Positionality in Geographic Fieldwork on Health in Latin America: Lessons from La Costa Ecuatoriana Ben W. Brisbois and Patricia Polo Almeida Introduction Geographers have comprehensively argued that the process of generating knowledge through fieldwork is inevitably affected by the social location of the researcher in question: his or her gender, age, ability, discipline, profession, class, race, and national identity (Faria and Mollett 2016; Hunter 2009; Jackson and Neely 2015; Sundberg 2005). As Sundberg (2003) demonstrates using the example of her fieldwork in Guatemala, scholarship that ignores its own situated nature perpetuates “masculinist” epistemologies that obscure imperialist power relations allowing the generation of knowledge about Latin America. In this commentary we draw on our experiences carrying out fieldwork in Ecuador’s coastal region (la Costa) to extend such arguments to the context of geographic research on health in Latin America. Such an extension is timely for multiple reasons. As health geography attempts to engage with the field of global health (Herrick 2016), geographers will be increasingly drawn into global health projects in Latin America. Geographers in global health projects will likely experience the field’s sense of urgency to forego inconvenient critical reflection and simply ‘do something’ about pressing global health issues (cf. Pigg 2013). This dismissal of critical scholarship is consistent with imaginative geographies of global health – a field defined and largely controlled by the global North – that elide histories of colonialism and present Latin America and other global South regions as inexplicably or constitutionally disadvantaged (Brisbois 2014; Sparke 2009). Furthermore, in addition to such North-South concerns, geographical fieldwork on health in rural Latin America frequently involves researchers and theories originating in Latin American metropolitan centres, suggesting a need to examine how those researchers and theories are themselves situated. Indeed, analyses of Eurocentric and North American footprints in Latin American scholarship, and of the relationships between knowledge production and regional inequities, make such reflexivity particularly pressing (Castro-Gómez 2003; De la Cadena 2007; Lander 2000; Porto-Gonçalves 2006). We are two early-career researchers – one Ecuadorian, one Canadian – who have carried out qualitative fieldwork on health implications of banana production in Ecuador. We have in common critical geographic approaches and a desire for engaged scholarship. [End Page 194] We begin by describing our fieldwork experiences, using first-person voice to characterize our respective social locations, which we interpret as including our different institutional and theoretical homes. We then discuss these experiences in light of scholarship on imaginative geographies and their relationship to political economic inequities, and reflect on implications for geographical fieldwork on health in Latin America. Fieldwork experiences El Oro: A gringo “doctor” in the banana capital of the world My (Ben Brisbois) doctoral research examined narratives of pesticide risk among banana farmers and workers in the coastal Ecuadorian province of El Oro, whose capital Machala is the self-described ‘banana capital of the world’ (Brisbois 2016). I worked within a global health research program at a Canadian university, using social scientific theories – especially human geographic work on scale and political ecology – to challenge global health’s apolitical, biomedical framing of problems such as agricultural pesticide exposure (cf. Brisbois 2014). I employed an ethnographic approach to investigate how Orenses (residents of El Oro) understand the causes and health effects of pesticide exposure in banana production. I was especially interested in their preferred solutions to this challenge, and harboured ambitions of engaged scholarship. I am white, male, university-educated, and Canadian (a gringo, in Ecuador). In the field, these factors affected my reception and therefore the data I collected. Responding to my home in a school of public health, for example, both a physician and a high school teacher in the provincial capital of Machala facilitated my access to rural communities where they thought I should “educate” banana farm workers in pesticide safety and nutrition. When speaking with the farm workers in question, I was mistakenly identified as a physician – I am not – and was subsequently asked to help provide healthcare to the community. Both my sampling strategy and responses to my interview questions were therefore conditioned by my perceived profession. In addition, my presence in El Oro evoked geographic imaginaries involving the global...

Territorio estratégico y segregación: la región noreste del Área Metropolitana de Montevideo

Las áreas metropolitanas de América Latina transitan por diversos cambios territoriales que se han profundizado durante las últimas décadas. En este estudio se analizan las dinámicas territoriales que han ocurrido en la región noreste del Área Metropolitana de Montevideo, se considera a la segregación territorial y a los territorios estratégicos como conceptos claves para entender dichas transformaciones. En este sentido se emplean técnicas de Geoprocesamiento y se elabora un índice de estratificación socioeconómica. Los resultados indican un crecimiento sostenido de los procesos de urbanización sobre el uso rural y se evidencia un desarrollo acelerado de cambios en las distintas clases sociales donde el Estado es un actor clave para favorecer los procesos de segregación territorial.

Observatorios urbanos en América Latina: ¿observar o participar?

El objetivo de esta investigación es avanzar en la comprensión del rol de los observatorios, específicamente en el contexto metropolitano latinoamericano, en lo que se refiere a su capacidad para promover la participación ciudadana utilizando Tecnologías de Información Geográfica (tig). Se identificaron tipologías respecto al acceso y uso que hacen los ciudadanos de la información sobre fenómenos, políticas, planes y proyectos urbanos. La valoración realizada evidencia que actualmente el rol de estos observatorios, en general, no es precisamente proactivo ni interactivo, sino uno con limitada capacidad de promover la participación, la transparencia espacial y la toma de decisiones colectivas.

Polycentric Structures in Latin American Metropolitan Areas: Identifying Employment Sub-centres

Fernández-Maldonado A. M., Romein A., Verkoren O. and Parente Paula Pessoa R. Polycentric structures in Latin American metropolitan areas: identifying employment sub-centres, Regional Studies. The significant spatial transformations that have occurred within Latin American metropolitan areas since the 1990s have triggered many local studies claiming the formation of polycentric structures. This study explores the extent of that process, identifying sub-centres of employment using the double threshold methodology of job concentration and employment density in Mexico City (Mexico), Lima (Peru) and Fortaleza (Brazil). The results, although partial due to an absence of data on informal employment, indicate that Latin American metropolises are moving towards polycentric structures. But the identified employment sub-centres are mostly located in or near the metropolitan core, which practically excludes the formation of polycentric nodes in the metropolitan periphery.

Assessing land-use and -cover changes in relation to geographic factors and urban planning in the metropolitan area of Concepción (Chile). Implications for biodiversity conservation

The conservation of biodiversity in Latin American metropolitan areas is threatened by the intense land-use and -cover change. Assessing the overall biodiversity changes in entire regions faces with the traditional lack of consistent biodiversity data. This work aims at contributing to this assessment through a set of major pressures to biodiversity defined from land-use and -cover changes, and evaluating their extent, distribution and correlations with geographical variables. The study was performed in the framework of the Metropolitan Urban Plan of Concepción (MUPC, Chile). Land-use and -cover maps were obtained through image classification for the years 2000 and 2010, before and after the MUPC approval, and combined in a land-use and -cover change (LUCC) map. A set of pressures to biodiversity (natural and artificial forestation, deforestation, agricultural abandonment and expansion, and urbanization) was obtained from reclassifying the LUCC map. The correlations of these pressures with a set of geographical variables were assessed using canonical ordination methods. Finally, a preliminary forecast analysis of the effects of the MUPC was performed by combining the land-use and -cover map of 2010 with the urban-extension areas of the plan.Results showed that, in only 10 years, 57% of the Concepción Metropolitan Area (CMA) was affected by land-use and -cover changes, and 48% was affected by the pressures to biodiversity. Artificial forestation and deforestation were the dominant pressures, followed by agricultural abandonment and urbanization. The geographical distribution of pressures during the 2000–2010 period also contributed to affect the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable management of the CMA. Indeed, natural forestation occurred close to urbanization, thus threatening the ecological integrity of native forests, while artificial forestation, deforestation and agricultural abandonment took place in steeply areas thus increasing landslide risk. Despite urbanization was not the most relevant pressure in the short studied period, urban development planned in the MUPC would determine an overall increase of 60% in the built-up area of the CMA, mostly affecting brushwood and forest plantations but also native forest and wetlands. Implications of these results for the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and the sustainable management of Latin American metropolis are finally discussed.

Fragmentación Socio-espacial en la Periferia de la Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires

The metropolitan region of Buenos Aires was the object of significant transformations during the last decade of the 20th century, as were many other Latin American metropolitan areas. In fact, there is a change of pattern in the urbanization process from the European radial-concentric city to the North American dispersed urbanization. The difference between these processes is based first, in the different socio-economic composition of the actors; and secondly, in the fragmentation of the urban fabric. New private housing projects play a very important role in the restructuring of the urban land in the form of urban archipelagos with concomitant legal issues and the problematic of increased spatial and social segregation.

Polycentric Metropolitan Form: Application of a ‘Northern’ Concept in Latin America

Since the mid 20th century, large urban areas in advanced economies have experienced a fundamental transformation from relatively compact monocentric cities towards more extended polycentric metropolitan areas. By now, it is being commented repeatedly, but not investigated systematically that the concept of polycentricity is also adequate to characterise recent metropolitan dynamics in Latin-America. This paper aims to present a few key-issues for a future research agenda into polycentricity in Latin-American metropolitan areas. These elements are identified from a review of existing literature. Since no clear-cut definition and operationalisation of polycentricity exist yet, we distinguish some key-elements of this phenomenon in North America as a frame of reference for this review. It reveals that ‘polycentricity U.S. style’ is at best dawning in Latin-America. In order to achieve a more appropriate picture of polycentricity of Latin American metropolitan areas, our ideas for a research agenda take into account these areas typical economic, social and spatial conditions.

Polycentric Metropolitan Form: Application of a ‘Northern’ Concept in Latin America

Since the mid 20th century, large urban areas in advanced economies have experienced a fundamental transformation from relatively compact monocentric cities towards more extended polycentric metropolitan areas. By now, it is being commented repeatedly, but not investigated systematically that the concept of polycentricity is also adequate to characterise recent metropolitan dynamics in Latin-America. This paper aims to present a few key-issues for a future research agenda into polycentricity in Latin-American metropolitan areas. These elements are identified from a review of existing literature. Since no clear-cut definition and operationalisation of polycentricity exist yet, we distinguish some key-elements of this phenomenon in North America as a frame of reference for this review. It reveals that ‘polycentricity U.S. style’ is at best dawning in Latin-America. In order to achieve a more appropriate picture of polycentricity of Latin American metropolitan areas, our ideas for a research agenda take into account these areas typical economic, social and spatial conditions.

Vehicle Restrictions in Four Latin American Cities: Is Congestion Pricing Possible?

An exploratory study of the prospects for congestion pricing in four Latin American metropolitan areas where traffic bans currently exist—Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Bogotá—is presented. Through a historical analysis of the implementation process and experience of the traffic bans, along with a snowball‐sampled survey of transportation experts in each city, three factors are found to be the most important to ensure favourable prospects for implementing congestion pricing in these cities: (1) widespread public information regarding the environmental and health risks of traffic congestion and resulting air pollution; (2) implementation of complementary policies such as public transport enhancements and increased parking fees in congested areas; and (3) development of a knowledge culture among politicians and experts through discourse on alternative road pricing policies based on systematic analysis. Among other pertinent issues discussed, the work shows that the equity concerns for low‐income car drivers often cited in discussions on congestion pricing in developed countries are less applicable in the cases studied. A key concern is the lack of political will because it is people with relatively higher incomes and political influence who predominantly own and use cars in these four cities. The findings, though exploratory, are important because the potential of congestion pricing to manage the rapid pace of motorization in the developing world is not well studied. This paper presents an initial step towards studying the implementation of the policy in developing countries.