Urbanization and the consumption of fertile land and other ecological changes: the case of Buenos Aires

Abstract

This paper describes the conflict between agriculture and urban development in the Pampa Ondulada, the eco-region where the city of Buenos Aires is located and which is one of the world’s richest and most productive agricultural areas. It describes and analyzes the ecological changes brought about by urban expansion in peri-urban and rural areas between 1869 and 1991 and the form that these have taken. It also includes an analysis of the soil types where this expansion has taken place. The paper ends with a discussion of the lack of control over the continued expansion of the urban agglomeration including that caused by the closed settlements now favoured by middle and upper-income groups and the speculative parcelling of land in advance of its development.

El cambio de paradigma de la gestión del drenaje urbano desde la perspectiva del planeamiento. Una propuesta metodológica

“…3 graves consecuencias sobre el territorio y la ciudad, produciendo la pérdida de biodiversidad y hábitats (Carsjens y Van Lier, 2002;Gibb y Hochuli, 2002), la destrucción de suelos agrícolas y forestales (Morello et al, 2000;Lawrence et al, 2002;Chen et al, 2003;Imhoff et al, 2004), la degradación del paisaje (SWD 101, 2012), la modificación del clima urbano o efecto 'isla de calor' 2 (Gartland, 2008) (Fig. 2) y la alteración del ciclo hidrológico (Imhoff et al, 2004 1 La importancia de este fenómeno es tal, que en 2012 la Comisión Europea creó un grupo de trabajo específico para analizar las consecuencias del 'sellado del suelo' en Europa, elaborando un documento denominado "Directrices sobre las mejores prácticas para limitar, mitigar o compensar el sellado del suelo", que marca las líneas de acción para políticas, planes y programas en los diferentes estados miembros de la UE en materia de suelos (SWD 101, 2012).…”

“…al, 2008). Este proceso está teniendo graves consecuencias sobre el territorio y la ciudad, produciendo la pérdida de biodiversidad y hábitats (Carsjens y Van Lier, 2002;Gibb y Hochuli, 2002), la destrucción de suelos agrícolas y forestales (Morello et al, 2000;Lawrence et al, 2002;Chen et al, 2003;Imhoff et al, 2004), la degradación del paisaje (SWD 101, 2012), la modificación del clima urbano o efecto 'isla de calor' 6 (Gartland, 2008) (Fig. 2) y la alteración del ciclo hidrológico (Imhoff et al, 2004).…”

Changes in Rodent Communities as Consequence of Urbanization and Inappropriate Waste Management

“…The expansion of urban areas into natural habitats causes significant changes in species compositions, species interactions, and also impacts ecological and evolutionary processes (Aronson et al, 2014;McKinney, 2008). Urban ecosystems lower the quality of ecological services, with limited capacity to prevent pest outbreaks (Morello et al, 2000).…”

“…heat island effects) (Bradley and Altizer, 2007). Although the conversion of natural or semi-natural to urban ecosystems can be a slow process, it is usually irreversible (Morello et al, 2000;Power, 2010).…”

Indicators to evaluate water sensitive urban design in urban planning

“…The expansion process of built-up areas has generated an uncontrolled increase in impermeable surface area [9], which is having serious consequences for cities and their residents [10][11][12]. A loss of biodiversity and natural habitats, [13,14], and agricultural and forestry land [15][16][17], has occurred and it has increased the temperature in urban environments (the "Heat Island" effect), generating problems for human health. It has also increased energy consumption [18,19].…”