Santiago Research Articles

Identifying and visualizing operational bottlenecks and Quick win opportunities for improving bus performance in public transport systems

Congestion is one of the main problems prevalent in surface public transport systems. Congestion affects travel time, service regularity, and system costs. The accuracy of identification of speed-related problems depends on the quality and precision of the tools used to analyze the available operational data, that is, data on the impact on users and operational costs. Furthermore, traffic signals contribute significantly to operational delay, and programming traffic signals to prioritize transit can substantially increase the operating speeds. For example, green split redistributions are simple and low-cost adjustments to traffic signals that can significantly improve operating speeds. However, it might be expensive to collect the necessary traffic flow information. This study had a twofold contribution. First, it presents an extension of a tool that uses buses GPS data to identify and rank bottlenecks, in which queue lengths and bus load profiles are now considered for estimating user delay. Second, a methodology to identify which of these bottlenecks can be easily removed ( Quick wins ) by reallocating the traffic signal’s green times among phases. The modified methodology was applied in the city of Santiago de Chile, where the inclusion of both the queue length and bus load profiles is shown to modify the ranking. Additionally, Quick wins opportunities were detected and addressed resulting in an average 85% reduction in bus delays.

El rol de las narraciones autobiográficas en la comprensión histórica del sujeto y su comunidad

This article collects the results of an interventional research regarding the educational possibilities and obstacles that arose after the implementation in the classroom of a teaching and learning sequence that sought to link the historical narratives with the autobiographical fragments of young people around the Civil Military Dictatorship. in Chile (1973-1990). This qualitative research acquired the methodology of content analysis in thirteen stories written by high school students in a paid private school in Santiago de Chile. The results show that the student group elaborated narratives with different structures according to the temporal context. Thus, the autobiographical fragments acquire prominence in the present and future, since the students explained some personal ideas from conceptual quasi-characters (individualism) that were consolidated in the Chilean dictatorial context. Despite the above, the quasi-characters incorporated in the stories limited the spaces of freedom of the subjects and hindered, on some occasions, the incorporation of the individuality of the students. In addition, the presence of the past-present-future temporality allowed the autobiographical to be incorporated into a broader temporal context, characterized by negative judgments about the political conflict and by ways of acting as citizens restricted to individual spaces, preventing the encounter with others. In conclusion, the links between the content and skills of historical thinking with autobiographical narratives are not natural, but complex to work in school and present challenges on how students can understand themselves historically.

A roadmap for ladybird conservation and recovery.

Ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) provide services that are critical to food production, and they fulfill an ecological role as a food source for predators. The richness, abundance, and distribution of ladybirds, however, are compromised by many anthropogenic threats. Meanwhile, a lack of knowledge of the conservation status of most species and the factors driving their population dynamics hinders the development and implementation of conservation strategies for ladybirds. We conducted a review of the literature on the ecology, diversity, and conservation of ladybirds to identify their key ecological threats. Ladybird populations are most affected by climate factors, landscape composition, and biological invasions. We suggest mitigating actions for ladybird conservation and recovery. Short-term actions include citizen science programs and education, protective measures for habitat recovery and threatened species, prevention of the introduction of non-native species, and the maintenance and restoration of natural areas and landscape heterogeneity. Mid-term actions involve the analysis of data from monitoring programs and insect collections to disentangle the effect of different threats to ladybird populations, understand habitat use by taxa on which there is limited knowledge, and quantify temporal trends of abundance, diversity, and biomass along a management-intensity gradient. Long-term actions include the development of a worldwide monitoring program based on standardized sampling to fill data gaps, increase explanatory power, streamline analyses, and facilitate global collaborations.

Crime Analysis of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile: A Spatial Panel Data Approach

The aim of our work is to determine the influence that socio-economic and demographic factors have had on crimes that have taken place during the period 2010–2018 in the communes of the Metropolitan Region of Chile, as well as the existence of possible spatial or temporal effects. We address 12 kinds of crime that we have grouped into two main types: against people and against property. Our interest focuses on crimes against people, using crimes against property as an additional covariate in order to investigate the existence of the broken-windows phenomenon in this context. The model chosen for our analysis is a spatial panel model with fixed effects. The results highlight that covariates such as infant mortality, birth rate, poverty and green areas have a significant influence on crimes against people. Regarding the spatio-temporal covariates, one effect observed is that there is a displacement of crime towards neighbouring communes, leaving open a new line of study to discover the causes of this displacement.

Food democracy and sustainability in France and Chile: Community gardens promote ecological citizenship

This study explored cases of sustainable food production in urban and non-urban areas, including the development of urban gardens, and particularly the social relations involved in these community projects. A qualitative approach was used to compare four case studies in Chile and France: shared gardens in Lyon, family and workers' gardens in Santiago in Chile, an indigenous agricultural project in Lonquimay in the southern Andes, and the work of the NGO Cultivos Urbanos. The data was collected through surveys, participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The results show that tending gardens in these settings (worker, family, collective, or shared gardens) promotes social values that can lead to more sustainable forms of community living. As opposed to intensive agriculture, small-scale gardening practices, specifically in urban and peri-urban gardens, encourage human/non-human relationships, and the transmission of caring for nature and for others, which promotes ecological citizenship.

The Disabling City: Older Persons Walking in Central Neighbourhoods of Santiago de Chile

Walking reports numerous benefits for older persons, yet its practice can be hindered by the built environment. This article seeks to understand how and why certain elements of the built environment facilitate or impede the everyday trips older persons complete on foot. It reports the findings of a set of walking interviews conducted in four central neighbourhoods of Santiago de Chile, where forty older persons were invited to walk and talk about the trips they complete on foot and the aspects that facilitate or hinder them. The findings reveal that older persons are aware of the benefits of walking and travel regularly on foot despite the barriers they find in their neighbourhoods. The presence/absence of greenery, the conditions of the facades and the level of cleanliness of the streets affect older persons’ walking experience and can increase/diminish their willingness to walk. Damaged and poorly designed pedestrian infrastructure can cause fear, provoke accidents and become serious hazards. Older persons develop strategies to overcome these barriers, yet the data suggest that they see Santiago as a “disabling city” because it has obstacles that could be unsurmountable in a near future if an illness or an accident diminishes their abilities.

Mapping Energy Poverty: How Much Impact Do Socioeconomic, Urban and Climatic Variables Have at a Territorial Scale?

Energy poverty, considered a form of deprivation distinct from income poverty, is associated with three factors: low-income levels, high energy costs, and poor residential energy efficiency. It is necessary to study the socio-spatial distribution of energy poverty, particularly in metropolitan areas, due to persistent socioeconomic segregation and their public agenda implications, including the U.N. SDGs. A model of these characteristics can propose a spatial analysis of urban and climate implications, contributing evidence for public policy. This article aims to address energy poverty from a spatial approach extended to the urban area in Santiago de Chile through an exploratory model that estimates the impact of socioeconomic, urban, and climatic variables at a territorial scale on the performance of homes. Using a geographical weighted regression with the inside home temperature in winter as the dependent variable, the independent variables were the percentage of professionals, NDVI, annual thermal amplitude, and housing material quality. A housing quality pattern that acts as a proxy for vulnerability to energy poverty was found, repeating the distribution pattern of the different socioeconomic sectors. The findings incorporate a new interpretive matrix into the complex reproduction of segregation and inequality in a capital city from a developing country.

Making it work: How women negotiate labor market participation after the transition to motherhood.

The increasing participation of women in the labor market coexists with traditional gender roles and a social division of labor that reproduces the feminization of childcare and housework. Reconciling the contradictions between work and family life has become one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary female life course. In this article, I analyze the strategies through which women in Santiago de Chile negotiate their participation in the labor market after the transition to motherhood using qualitative data produced through 28 in-depth life story interviews. The findings confirm that married women from older age cohorts and middle socioeconomic status scale down paid work by working part-time, reducing their working hours, and finding more flexible and less demanding jobs that are closer to home. However, the findings also reveal that single women from younger age cohorts and lower socioeconomic status scale up on paid work by working full-time and finding jobs that are more demanding, involve longer workdays and provide better salaries and social benefits. These findings advance knowledge on the strategies through which women from different age cohorts and family and socioeconomic status negotiate paid work after becoming mothers and highlight the importance of taking a situated and intersectional approach to account for the particular ways in which women reconcile work and family life.

The alcohol prevention magnitude measure: Application of a Spanish-language version in Santiago, Chile.

The Alcohol Prevention Magnitude Measure (APMM) is an instrument to monitor and improve substance use prevention at the community level developed in Sweden. The aim of this study was to produce and apply a Spanish-language version of the APMM. We translated and adapted the APMM using an expert panel. We retained 37 indicators in five dimensions, with total scores ranging from 0 to 100 points and 0 to 20 in each dimension. The instrument was administered to the prevention coordinators in six socioeconomically heterogeneous municipalities of Santiago de Chile, during the pilot implementation of a community-based prevention model in 2019 and 2020. We calculated median scores for the instrument and each dimension. We tested for differences between 2019 and 2020 using the Wilcoxon Test and between municipalities with the Friedman Test. The Spanish version of the APMM was acceptable to stakeholders. The median scores were 49.3 (range: 34.0 to 64.0) in 2019 and 67.3 (range 55.5 to 80.5) in 2020. The median scores for Staff and budget were 14.0 in 2019 and 2020, for Prevention policy 5.0 in 2019 and 16.0 in 2020, for Cooperation with key agents 12.0 in both years, for Supervision and alcohol licenses 4.3 in 2019 and 9.0 in 2020, and for Prevention activities 11.0 in 2019 and 15.0 in 2020. The scores in the dimensions Prevention policy and Supervision and alcohol licenses significantly increased in 2020. The differences between the municipalities were not significant. Improvements of the prevention index between 2019 and 2020 in the dimension Prevention policies may be related to the intervention. Improvements in Supervision and alcohol licenses could be related to curfew policies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Spanish version of the APMM deserves larger scale testing in Latin America.

Socio-spatial differentiation in a Latin American metropolis: urban structure, residential mobility, and real estate in the high-income cone of Santiago de Chile

ABSTRACT The High-Income Cone (HIC) is characteristic of the urban structure of Latin-American metropolises, consisting of a delimited area of the city where inhabitants of high socioeconomic status are located, consolidating the patterns of social segregation and inequality that are typical of those societies. Despite the urban transformations experienced by the metropolises of the continent in the last decades, little study has been done to understand the internal dynamics of HICs, which are usually considered a socially homogeneous space. This article delves into the internal complexities of the HIC of Greater Santiago, investigating its residential mobility processes and distinguishing between traditional and recent inhabitants, or ‘inheritors’ and ‘achievers’. Our results indicate the presence of parallel processes of residential mobility, where ‘achievers’ are concentrated in the apartments located in the pericentral zone of the HIC, while ‘inheritors’ move to the houses located in the extreme east. This process of permeability and filtering is conditioned by the recent trends of neoliberal urban densification and expansion, where the construction of more accessible buildings allows the arrival of certain people to the pericentral areas of the HIC, while the more exclusive houses and gated-communities far east are more accessible for inheritors.

Specificities Introduced by Mobile Phones in the Relationship Between Children and Commercial Content

This article explores the specificities of the relationship between children and the advertising to which they are exposed through their cell phones, and reports on a mixed methodology study conducted in the metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile. The study aims to learn about children’s predisposition, interaction, and perceptions with regards to mobile advertising. Most significant is the finding that this young generation (10-14 years old) identify commercial messages with which they claim low levels of interaction. Regarding interaction, the ads which most likely attract minors’ attention are placed on social networks, are presented in formats which provide some value (in terms of information or entertainment) and are for on products of interest to the audience studied. Finally, for many minors advertising eminently belongs to the digital world and their perceptions may not be transferable to traditional media.

Probing the Atmospheric Precipitable Water Vapor with SOFIA, Part III. Atlas of Seasonal Median PWV Maps from ERA5, Implications for FIFI-LS and in situ Comparison Between the ERA5 and MERRA-2 Atmospheric Re-analyses

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an airborne observatory for far-infrared astronomy stationed at the Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Palmdale, CA, USA. Although SOFIA flies at altitudes of ∼41,000 ft, any far-infrared observations from within the Earth’s atmosphere are nevertheless hampered by water vapor absorbing the astronomical signal. The primary atmospheric parameter governing absorption in the far-infrared is the total upward precipitable water vapor, PWV. In this paper we present global PWV maps derived from re-analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, ECMWF, with a geographical resolution of 0.°5, for flight altitudes ranging from 37,000 ft to 45,000 ft and each meteorological season. These maps were validated with FIFI-LS PWV measurements on board SOFIA and allow an investigation of the global morphology and seasonal dependence of the total upward PWV in the stratosphere. We additionally investigate the observing conditions, in terms of PWV, at various locations, especially around SOFIA’s home base, Palmdale, but also around sites in the southern hemisphere like Tahiti, Santiago de Chile (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Christchurch (New Zealand). From the southern sites investigated Christchurch provides the best conditions in terms of PWV (and efficiency), Tahiti the worst. Using total power sky measurements with FIFI-LS we also derive a mean emissivity of the telescope (primary, secondary and tertiary mirror) of ϵ Tel = 20.5 ± 1.6% around the astronomically significant [C ii] emission line. We finally compare atmospheric re-analyses from GEOS (MERRA-2) and ECMWF (ERA5) to our FIFI-LS PWV measurements. Both re-analyses correlate linearly with our FIFI-LS PWV measurements from all flight altitudes but with different scaling factors. However, MERRA-2 correlates significantly less well than ERA5 especially for flight altitudes below 41,000 ft.

The street, children and parents: the views of children from Santiago de Chile

ABSTRACT In this article, we present the partial results of a broader qualitative study carried out in the city of Santiago de Chile between 2016 and early 2020. In particular, we analyse the discourses found in 12 group interviews with Chilean children – aged 10 and 11, and of three socioeconomic strata (upper-middle, middle and low) – about the relationship they establish with the street’s space and the negotiations they conduct with their parents about it. The results show that the street evokes a feeling of menace and moral downfall for the children, while parents are called on to play the role of protectors and moralisers. At the same time, the street is signified as a space of relative freedom, of peer sociability and play, to which they insist that parents give them access even though restricted. These results are closely linked to the socio-historical context in which modern childhood is constructed, the more recent media and political inflation of urban insecurity and the objectively hostile nature of urban environments for children.

Publicidad a medida. Impacto de las variables sociodemográficas en los contenidos comerciales que los menores reciben en el móvil

La preferencia de los menores por el teléfono móvil como vía de acceso a internet se constata a nivel global. Su consumo de contenidos está íntimamente asociado a la presencia de intereses comerciales que ven en este grupo de edad un segmento de mucho interés presente y futuro. Las posibilidades de segmentación que ofrece la tecnología, sumadas a las que añade el carácter personal del dispositivo, abren muchas consideraciones estratégicas, pero también éticas sobre la personalización de los contenidos con base en perfiles y pautas de comportamiento online. A través del análisis de contenido de 2410 anuncios, que menores de entre 10 y 14 años del Área Metropolitana de Santiago de Chile recibieron en sus teléfonos móviles, se busca averiguar si las variables sociodemográficas inciden en el tipo de publicidad que consumen. Se añade también la variable posesión del móvil como elemento de estudio. Los resultados apuntan a diferencias significativas de la publicidad a la que son expuestos en función de todas las variables, lo que plantea consideraciones éticas de gran calado.

First wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Santiago Chile: Seroprevalence, asymptomatic infection and infection fatality rate

BackgroundThe first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Chile occurred during the cold season reaching a peak by the end of June 2020, with 80 % of the cases concentrated in its capital, Santiago. The main objective of this study was to estimate the attack rate during this first wave of SARS-CoV-2 in a large, densely populated city with more than seven million inhabitants. Since the number of confirmed cases provides biased information due to individuals' potential self-selection, mostly related to asymptomatic patients and testing access, we measured antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 to assess infection prevalence during the first wave in the city, as well as estimate asymptomatic cases, and infection fatality ratio. To our knowledge this is one of the few population-based cross-sectional serosurvey during the first wave in a highly affected emerging country. The challenges of pandemic response in urban settings in a capital city like Santiago, with heterogeneous subpopulations and high mobility through public transportation, highlight the necessity of more accurate information regarding the first waves of new emerging diseases. MethodsFrom April 24 to June 21, 2020, 1326 individuals were sampled from a long-standing panel of household representatives of Santiago. Immunochromatographic assays were used to detect IgM and IgG antibody isotypes. ResultsSeroprevalence reached 6.79 % (95 %CI 5.58 %−8.26 %) in the first 107 days of the pandemic, without significant differences among sex and age groups; this figure indicates an attack rate 2.8 times higher than the one calculated with registered cases. It also changes the fatality rate estimates, from a 2.33 % case fatality rate reported by MOH to an estimated crude 1.00 % (CI95 % 0.97–1.03) infection fatality rate (adjusted for test performance 1.66 % [CI95 % 1.61–1.71]). Most seropositive were symptomatic (81,1 %). ConclusionsDespite the high number of cases registered, mortality rates, and the stress produced over the health system, the vast majority of the people remained susceptible to potential new epidemic waves. We contribute to the understanding of the initial spread of emerging epidemic threats. Consequently, our results provide better information to design early strategies that counterattack new health challenges in urban contexts.

Civil unrest and firm performance: evidence from Chile

This investigation is the first to analyze how civil unrest impacts the performance of companies. Using a panel composed of 99 non-financial firms listed on the Santiago de Chile Stock Exchange during the period between the first quarter of 2017 and 2020 we find that civil unrest negatively impacts firm performance. This effect is asymmetric among the different industrial sectors with the Trade and Industrial sectors being the most adversely affected. On the other hand, the Agriculture-fishing and Utilities sectors show a better performance.

The symbolic (re)production of marginality: Social construction, internalization, and concrete consequences of territorial stigmatization in a poor neighborhood of Santiago de Chile

Territorial stigmatization is a socially-constructed, symbolic representation of a place created and manipulated by external agents, which, once established, becomes decisive for the future of that place and its residents. This discredit is wide and perdurable and operates ‘from above,’ in the media, public officials, and part of academia, and ‘from below,’ in everyday interactions. Through a qualitative case-study in Santiago de Chile, mainly based on interviews and participant observations, this article shows the entire process of stigmatization: how these symbolic representations are socially constructed by different actors; how they are assumed in the discourses of residents, with a variety of reactions that include submissive internalization, naturalization, and a politicized challenge; and how these representations trigger the abandonment from several actors, which is conceptualized by residents as living in ‘Red Zones’ of chronic institutional abandonment. We finish suggesting that stigmatization operates as an institutional mechanism that intervenes in the relationship between poverty concentration and the emergence of social problems.

Beyond Algorithmic Control: Ordering and Delivery Platforms Labor Process in the Chilean Retail Production Network

Abstract This article describes and analyzes the labor process of Rappi, one of the main ordering and delivery platforms (odp) in Latin America. An exploratory qualitative case study was carried out and the results are based on the content analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews to platform workers as well as ethnographic work done in 2019–2020 in Santiago de Chile. This article contributes to, first, describe and analyze labor processes organized by an odp whose property and operation is managed in the Global South; second, it enables to explore the role played by Rappi within the Chilean retail production network; third, it connects diverse labor processes organized by odp s further on the ‘pick-up and deliver’ orders task; finally, it analyzes different control mechanisms executed by Rappi beyond algorithmic control, together with individual and collective resistance practices adopted by shoppers and riders.

Urban mobility patterns and the spatial distribution of infections in Santiago de Chile.

The process of a virus spread is inherently spatial. Even though Latin America became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, there is still little evidence of the relationship between urban mobility and virus propagation in the region. This paper combines network analysis of mobility patterns in public transportation with a spatial error correction model for Santiago de Chile. Results indicate that a 10% higher number of daily public transportation trips received by an administrative unit in the city was associated with a 1.3% higher number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Following these findings, we propose an empirical method to identify and classify neighborhoods according to the level and type of risk for COVID-19-like disease propagation, helping policymakers manage mobility during the initial stages of an epidemic outbreak.

Study of the Effect of Urban Densification and Micrometeorology on the Sustainability of a Coronavirus-Type Pandemic

This research examines the persistence of a pandemic in urban environments subjected to intensive densification processes, applying chaotic analysis tools to hourly time series constructed by relating accumulated patients with meteorological and pollutant variables (measured at ground level). To investigate this objective, seven communes of the metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile that present intensive urbanization processes that affect urban micrometeorology, favoring the concentration of pollutants, were considered. Quotients were constructed between the number of hourly patients with SARS-CoV-2 that accumulated in each commune over a period of two years and the hourly variables of urban micrometeorology (temperature, magnitude of wind speed, relative humidity) and pollutant concentration (tropospheric ozone, particulate material of 2.5 and 10 μm) constituting a new family of time series. Chaos theory was applied to these new time series, obtaining the chaotic parameters Lyapunov coefficient, correlation entropy, Lempel–Ziv complexity, Hurst coefficient and the fractal dimension in each measurement commune. The results showed that the accumulated patients (2020–2022), of the order of 400,000, belonged to the five communes (with a built area of approximately 300,000 m2 in recent years) that had the highest urban densification, which affected urban meteorology, favored the concentration of pollutants and made the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic more persistent. The “ideal” density of built housing should balance a pandemic and nullify its expansion.