Socio-environmental segregation in the metropolitan area of Bogotá: a micro-territorial perspective.

Project: Research Project

Project Details

Description

The quality of life in cities is determined by environmental conditions, which are different in each area, which generates socioeconomic inequality.

One of the biggest challenges faced by urban regions (such as the Bogotá Savannah) is the maintenance and improvement of environmental quality, which is increasingly under pressure due to the physical and economic expansion processes of their cities.

Atmospheric pollution, the deficit of public space and urban trees, levels of insecurity against crimes, urban noise, among other environmental factors, are just some of the variables that on a daily basis have a high impact on the environmental quality of the cities.

However, these “negative externalities” of urban development do not occur homogeneously in space.

Municipalities, localities, neighborhoods and blocks are exposed to different levels of environmental quality, which have a differential and important impact on people's health and productivity levels, and on the development of their freedoms and capabilities.

Authors such as Escobedo, F (2015), Pedlowski (2002) and Nowak, D.J. (2009) have already addressed these differences from the study of socio-ecological dynamics, and the characterization of inequality in access to urban ecosystem services such as atmospheric quality or urban forests.

In this way, the proposed research seeks to address: (i) the statistical and spatial identification of the heterogeneity of environmental quality in the metropolitan area of Bogotá; (ii) the impacts on the quality of life, decisions and daily life of people, given differences in the environmental quality experienced; (iii) the incidence of certain design patterns, spatial configuration and territorial change, on the reproduction of this type of inequalities; and finally (iv), the way in which instruments such as the POT, partial plans, and public policies related to the development of the city-region reproduce or do not reproduce the economic and spatial conditions that generate environmental segregation in the territory.

Commitments / Obligations

The research aims to generate, in general terms, three different contributions:

- From the academic point of view, it seeks to contribute to the understanding of the relationships between the environmental conditions produced from the urban areas of the metropolitan area of Bogotá, the social and economic dynamics, and the practices of urban and territorial planning and management.

- From a social perspective, the research aims to be a reference for transdisciplinary research, aimed at promoting awareness and participation, on a topic as relevant as the inequalities present in the construction and consolidation of cities in developing countries.

The research has a clear political focus, since it aims to contribute to the support of a deeper discussion about the unequal distribution and concentration of the benefits and harms of life in the city.

- From the political point of view, the research seeks to contribute to the deepening of the analysis frameworks aimed at the environmental and social evaluation of urban public policies, with a view to the generation of specific recommendations, around the formulation and implementation of public policies and management and planning instruments that promote environmental justice in the city-region.

The interdisciplinary approach of the research proposal seeks to highlight and demonstrate the unequal distribution of physical-spatial conditions in the city, for which measures are required to guarantee access to the city and a healthy environment.

For this reason, the actors who will most benefit from the development of the proposal would be those population groups affected by socioeconomic segregation, which coexist in mutualistic cycles with socio-environmental segregation.

From this point of view, research can contribute to an improvement in the quality of life of the most environmentally vulnerable groups in the city.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date2/1/1811/30/18

UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This project contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

Main Funding Source

  • Installed Capacity (Academic Unit)

Location

  • Bogotá D.C.

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