Search Results (156)

Urban informality in amphibious territories represents a critical yet understudied dimension of contemporary urbanisation in the Global South. This article analyses the interrelations between spatial transformation, social equity, and environmental change in Las Flores, an informal settlement located between the Mallorquín Lagoon and the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, Colombia. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach combining GIS interpretation, participatory mapping, and in-depth interviews, the study examines how processes of informal territorialisation have reshaped both the physical landscape and the social fabric of this amphibious environment. Results indicate that the settlement has expanded progressively over the past two decades, occupying areas of the wetland previously covered by mangroves and natural vegetation. This expansion has been accompanied by environmental degradation, soil infilling, and declining water quality. Residents face persistent infrastructural deficits, limited access to education and healthcare, and increasing social fragmentation between the formal and informal sectors. Yet, the community also exhibits strong organisational capacity, adaptive livelihoods, and a deep sense of place that sustains local identity and resilience. These dynamics exemplify the paradox of amphibious life: coexistence with water as both a resource and a source of vulnerability. Building on these findings, the study develops an urban socio-ecological conceptualisation of Amphibious Justice, a framework for interpreting equity, recognition, and governance in hybrid territories where urbanisation and land–water dynamics intersect. The article proposes a framework of equitable amphibious urbanism that integrates environmental restoration, social inclusion, and participatory governance. The findings suggest that sustainability in such territories cannot be achieved through technocratic restoration or forced resettlement, but through co-produced strategies that recognise local knowledge, tenure security, and ecological stewardship. Ultimately, the case of Las Flores offers insights into how cities in the Global South can pursue just and adaptive coexistence with water amid growing climate and urban pressures. Full article

Direct evidence on curbside parking use in intermediate Latin American cities remains limited. This study characterized parking duration, purpose, turnover, accumulation, and regulatory compliance across six segment–date sessions in central Loja, Ecuador. Of 1426 observed curbside events, 1397 were retained after quality control. Analyses included descriptive and non-parametric tests, multivariable models with CR2 standard errors clustered by segment–date, and sensitivity analyses. Duration was strongly right-skewed (median 4 min; interquartile range 1–13 min; mean 36.3 min; P95 332.6 min), while passenger pick-up/drop-off accounted for 54.5% of events. Non-permitted maneuvers represented 64.0%. The four segment-sessions containing SIMERT coverage comprised 862 valid events, of which 776 occurred within marked SIMERT locations. Among the 644 marked-location events observed during payment-required hours, visible SIMERT use was recorded in 70 events (10.9%). After restricting the SIMERT component to marked locations during payment-required hours, composite non-compliance was identified in 1167 events (83.5%). During the common 06:30–18:30 comparison window, hourly turnover ranged from 0.54 to 1.96 events per legal space per hour, while cumulative space–time demand ranged from 11.6% to 154.8% of nominal legal space–time capacity. The value above 100% represents summed parking duration relative to nominal legal capacity and does not indicate simultaneous occupancy above 100%. Excluding session-boundary proxies left the median and interquartile range unchanged, although upper-tail estimates remained sensitive. Because each segment was observed on a single date, between-session differences cannot be interpreted as independent corridor effects. Natural-spline specifications provided better temporal fit than linear-hour specifications for both non-permitted maneuvers and revised composite non-compliance. These findings provide a reproducible local baseline for testing conventional and smart curb-management measures through repeated pilot studies. Full article

Public spaces are essential for urban well-being, social interaction, environmental quality, and territorial equity; however, their presence does not necessarily ensure adequate quality, accessibility, or multifunctionality. Although previous research has emphasized the importance of green and public spaces, fewer studies have integrated multidimensional quality assessment, GIS-based spatial analysis, and multicriteria prioritization in intermediate Latin American cities. This study aimed to evaluate spatial inequalities in the quality of urban public spaces in Loja, Ecuador, through a GIS-based multi-attribute composite index. A total of 183 public spaces were assessed using structured field observation of observable conditions and organized into six dimensions: functional, environmental, cultural, recreational, safety, and economic. The data were cleaned, validated, integrated with spatial layers, and analyzed through descriptive, inferential, multivariate, spatial autocorrelation, and multicriteria procedures. The results showed that public space quality was mainly concentrated at low and medium levels, with functional and safety dimensions playing a stronger role in the global index, while cultural, recreational, and economic components showed weaker performance. Spatial analysis revealed significant territorial differences, local clusters, and spatial outliers. The proposed framework provides a replicable tool to diagnose observable public space quality, identify priority intervention areas, and support evidence-based urban planning in other intermediate cities. Full article

Official cadastral values in Latin American intermediate cities may fail to keep pace with rapidly changing asking-price patterns, weakening the responsiveness of local property-tax bases. This study introduces the Relative Gap Rate (TBR), defined as the proportional divergence between observed vacant-land asking prices and official cadastral values, and applies it to Ambato, Ecuador. A dataset of 182 georeferenced asking-price observations was interpolated across a common cantonal support of 19,231 hexagonal cells. Predictors comprised a hierarchically weighted Urban Vitality Index (UVI), distance to the structural road network, elevation, and traffic-incident count derived from 1787 records. The TBR surface exhibited very strong positive spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s $I=0.956$, $p<0.001$), while the discrete asking-price observations were also spatially autocorrelated (Moran’s $I=0.282$, $p<0.001$). Lagrange Multiplier diagnostics supported a Spatial Autoregressive specification (pseudo-$R^2=0.927$; $\rho =0.885$). The Random Forest model achieved a test-set $R^2$ of 0.8319 and an MAE of 5.3252, with UVI accounting for 64.37% of impurity-based feature importance. The median TBR was 6.0, meaning that the median asking price was seven times the corresponding cadastral value; the maximum TBR reached 43.0. Traffic-incident count retained a positive spatial-regression coefficient but contributed only 5.53% of Random Forest importance. The framework provides an adaptable municipal diagnostic for identifying cadastral–asking-price divergence, subject to local validation and city-specific calibration. Full article

Rapid urbanization, automobile dependence, and declining public-space quality have increased interest in how street-level environments influence pedestrian activity and urban vitality. Although prior research has focused on macro-scale urban form and individual walking behavior, fewer studies have examined population-level pedestrian activity and micro-scale streetscape characteristics, particularly in socioeconomically segregated Latin American cities. This study explores the relationship between pedestrian activity and street-level built environment characteristics in middle-income neighborhoods of Santiago. The analysis included 514 street segments across seven neighborhoods using a modified Pedestrian Environment Data Scan (PEDS) audit instrument assessing destinations, street functionality, safety, aesthetics, and urban design qualities. Pedestrian activity was measured through repeated pedestrian counts conducted during two observation periods in 2025. Street segments were categorized into low, medium, and high activity levels, and multinomial logistic regression models were applied. Results showed that several micro-scale streetscape characteristics were significantly associated with pedestrian activity. Tree presence, sidewalk width, landmark visibility, and street-name visibility were consistently linked to higher pedestrian activity across both periods. Building height, enclosure, benches, segment monitoring, and on-street parking were also significant in at least one model. These findings highlight the importance of micro-scale urban design in promoting walkable and socially vibrant urban environments. Overall, greener, more legible, and pedestrian-oriented streets were consistently associated with higher levels of pedestrian activity. Full article

In an increasingly urbanized world, green spaces provide Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) that support human well-being and are often perceived as the most valued benefits in cities. Yet, their perception and co-occurrence remain underrepresented in Latin American regions. In this study, we assess the diversity and bundling of CES perceived by visitors across five urban parks in the Mexican city of Xalapa, Veracruz, and examine how park identity (synthesizing park-specific ecological and structural characteristics) and sociodemographic factors influence these perceptions. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed 373 surveys using general linear models. We identified 13 CES, with an average of three services per park. ‘Recreation’, ‘Mental health’, ‘Physical health’, and ‘Contact with nature’, the most frequently mentioned services, together with ‘Social relations’, consistently formed a dominant CES bundle, suggesting patterns in how cultural benefits are co-experienced. Park identity, visitor Age, and Gender were key predictors of CES perception variation, highlighting joint spatial and social influences. By integrating CES bundles with park-specific characteristics and sociodemographic drivers, this study advances current understanding of CES perception comprehensively and demonstrates that CES are not uniformly experienced across urban green spaces, underscoring the need for context-sensitive planning and management that account for both place identity and user diversity. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented collective reflection on everyday urban life, reshaping how citizens perceived proximity, mobility patterns, and the sustainability of everyday transport systems. This article examines whether these pandemic-induced reflections resonated with the core principles of the 15-Minute City, understood not as a policy blueprint but as an emergent social imaginary. Drawing on a large-scale comparative survey conducted during the strictest lockdown phase in April–May 2020 (n = 9575), the study analyses survey respondents’ desires and expectations regarding post-pandemic urban change across nine Ibero-American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, and Spain. Using one-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests, the results reveal a strong and widely shared normative orientation toward greener, more walkable, and more localized urban environments, all of which are key dimensions of sustainable urban mobility transitions, including reduced car dependence and a greater reliance on active transport modes such as walking and cycling. However, these aspirations are consistently accompanied by significantly lower expectations of implementation, resulting in a pronounced desire–expectation gap across all countries. This gap displays clear geographical variation and appears closely associated with perceived governance capacity and institutional trust, with European countries showing greater alignment between aspiration and expectation than their Latin American counterparts. The findings suggest that, even in the absence of explicit policy discourse, respondents expressed aspirational urban imaginaries displaying affinities with principles commonly associated with the 15-Minute City framework. By empirically capturing these bottom-up imaginaries, the study contributes to debates on sustainable urban transport and mobility transitions by highlighting the social foundations and governance constraints of proximity-based planning across diverse institutional contexts. Full article

Illegal parking is a persistent challenge in central areas of intermediate cities, where growing demand for curb access competes with limited road space, pedestrian circulation, and public transport operations. While previous research on parking management and curbside regulation has documented links between parking behavior, congestion, and street performance, empirical evidence based on direct street-segment observations remains limited in Latin American intermediate-city contexts. This study examines the distribution across observed street segments, user profile, and urban impacts of parking events across six commercial street segments in central Loja, Ecuador. A total of 1425 parking events were recorded between 11 and 28 May 2026 and classified by maneuver type, vehicle type, apparent use, parking reason, companions, operational conditions, and impacts on congestion, pedestrian circulation, and public transport. Descriptive statistics, exact confidence intervals, chi-square tests with Cramér’s V, false discovery rate correction, standardized residuals, and adjusted logistic regression models were applied. Results show that 64.4% of observed events were infractions, mainly prohibited-zone parking (38.9%) and double parking (25.5%). Infraction type varied strongly by street segment (Cramér’s V = 0.651). Adjusted congestion probabilities were substantially higher for double parking (45.0%) and prohibited-zone parking (41.3%) than for non-infraction events (10.2%). The findings indicate substantial heterogeneity in illegal-parking prevalence and composition among the six observed street segments, together with significant associations between parking infractions and urban street performance. These results identify segment-specific differences within the study area but should not be interpreted as evidence of spatial predictability beyond the observed locations and period. Full article

Fragmented urban growth in Latin American intermediate cities has increasingly displaced low-income populations to peripheral areas, creating spatial mismatches between residential areas and educational opportunities provided by public higher education institutions. These patterns reflect inequalities that constrain educational accessibility and limit urban resilience. To examine these dynamics, this study applies a geospatial framework to develop an Educational Spatial Injustice Index (ESII) that quantifies disparities in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mobility metrics derived from Google Maps API are combined with census microdata, to analyze 108 high-demand census tracts (AGEBs) linked with seven public higher education institutions. The ESII is constructed through a multi-criteria weighting scheme based on travel time, monetary cost and network distance. Results show a clear north–south pattern, with higher ESII values concentrated in southern peripheries (0.85/1.0), where mean daily travel time reaches 3.45 h. Statistical analysis shows that the Social Lag Index (IRS; ρ = 0.729) has the strongest association with the Global ESII. Furthermore, spatial regression modeling reveals that while operational transit connectivity (bus routes) is a significant mitigating factor (p < 0.001), the mere physical presence of infrastructure (bus stops) is not. These findings suggest that spatial injustice in educational accessibility is more deeply rooted in structural urban growth patterns and socio-spatial inequalities than in simple infrastructure provision. The results support targeted planning strategies to improve accessibility and strengthen urban resilience in intermediate cities. Full article

Cycling infrastructure has emerged as a strategic lever for sustainable urban development in Latin America, yet the factors that determine its effectiveness remain poorly understood and dispersed across fragmented literature. This systematic review, conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines, synthesizes evidence from 16 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and January 2026 to identify the key determinants of cycling infrastructure effectiveness in Latin American cities. Five critical dimensions emerged from the analysis: physically segregated infrastructure, gender-responsive design, multimodal connectivity, environmental and public health co-benefits, and adaptation to topographical and climatic conditions. The evidence reveals that segregated bike lanes increase cycling uptake by 48–187%, multimodal integration boosts combined trips by approximately 34%, and gender-sensitive interventions increase female cycling participation by up to 89%. These findings converge on a central insight: infrastructure effectiveness is not achieved through isolated investments but through the coherent, simultaneous implementation of multiple interconnected dimensions. This review contributes an original multidimensional analytical framework to guide evidence-based public policy and investment in sustainable urban mobility across the region. Full article

Parking management has become an increasingly important challenge in rapidly growing urban areas, yet evidence from intermediate Latin American cities remains scarce. This study analyzes parking choice behavior across Ecuadorian cities using a national stated preference (SP) experiment validated through revealed preference (RP) data and estimated via discrete choice models. Data were collected between 1 April and 3 May 2026 from 2150 active drivers across 12 cities spanning the Coast, Highlands, and Amazon regions. Multinomial Logit (MNL) and Mixed Logit (MIXL) models were estimated to evaluate the effects of parking cost, walking distance, search time, security, and surveillance on parking decisions. Results showed that all three cost-related attributes significantly reduced parking utility, while security improvements increased the probability of selecting formal parking alternatives. The MIXL model outperformed MNL specifications (ΔAIC = 211.84), revealing significant unobserved heterogeneity in cost (SD = 0.45) and security preferences (SD = 0.29). Willingness-to-pay estimates reached USD 0.64 per 100 m reduction in walking distance and USD 0.69 per 10-min reduction in search time, with substantial inter-city variability. Despite low current adoption (18.4%), willingness to use digital reservation systems exceeded 75% across income groups. The findings underscore the need for locally calibrated, context-sensitive parking policies and support differentiated smart parking strategies in developing urban systems. Full article

Urban freight distribution is essential for supplying commercial activities, but it also increases pressure on curb space, vehicular circulation, pedestrian movement, and public space management, especially in medium-sized cities where dedicated loading and unloading infrastructure is often limited. Although recent literature emphasizes the need for data-driven urban logistics planning, empirical evidence from intermediate Latin American cities remains scarce. This study develops and applies a spatial-operational framework to characterize urban freight distribution, identify patterns of conflict and informality, estimate loading and unloading bay requirements, and prioritize intervention areas in a medium-sized city. A quantitative, observational, exploratory–descriptive, and correlational design was applied, based on 642 georeferenced loading and unloading operations recorded through a digital field survey. The analysis integrated data cleaning, descriptive and inferential statistics, logistic models, an operational sustainability risk/pressure index, DBSCAN spatial clustering, logistics pressure and sustainable transport priority indices, and a capacity model based on average daily operations. The results revealed spatial concentration of logistics activity, a predominance of light trucks, frequent use of paid parking areas and roadways, and a high presence of operational conflicts. The study provides a replicable and planning-oriented framework for prioritizing curbside management interventions for sustainable urban freight distribution in medium-sized Latin American cities. Full article

Walkability has traditionally been assessed through physical indicators and objective metrics of the built environment; however, persistent methodological fragmentation limits its interpretive capacity in complex urban contexts. This article proposes an operational analytical framework for the analysis of walkability in Latin American intermediate commercial cities, understood as a relational and multiscale urban condition. The study adopts a qualitative–analytical design based on a systematic literature review and the comparative analysis of seven international walkability assessment methodologies. Through this critical synthesis, a framework is constructed that integrates macro, meso and micro scales, differentiated analytical domains, and a sequential interpretative procedure. The main contribution lies in providing an analytical structure that enables coherent interpretation of the tensions between urban structure, socio-economic functioning and pedestrian experience, avoiding reductive or decontextualized readings of walking in intermediate commercial cities. Full article

Sustainable municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment in rapidly urbanizing secondary cities requires evidence-based, district-level prioritization of technologies. We integrate GIS hotspot mapping, Random Forest, and AnyLogic System Dynamics into a decision-support framework and apply it to Shymkent, Kazakhstan (population 1.19 million; ≈301,400 tonnes of MSW in 2025). This is the first application of such a framework to MSW management in a Kazakhstani secondary city and, to our knowledge, the first regional application across Central Asia; the integration concept has prior precedents in Latin American, South Asian, and East Asian metropolitan studies, and the present contribution lies in empirical calibration to a Central Asian upper-middle-income context using 2015–2025 morphological audits, air-quality and soil monitoring, and Sentinel-2 NDVI. Random Forest (n = 80, 9 predictors) achieved R² = 0.976 ± 0.011 under 5-fold cross-validation; a complementary GroupKFold protocol confirms the model is Shymkent-calibrated while the methodology remains transferable. AnyLogic simulation shows an Infrastructure/Waste-to-Energy pathway reduces the 2030 annual landfilled volume to ≈201 kt, environmental risk by 70%, and methane emissions by 86% (≈270 kt CO₂-eq/year) relative to the Inertial baseline. The principal deliverable is a District × Technology × Phase prioritization matrix for sequencing sustainable investment under realistic budget constraints. Full article

Urban informality is a defining feature of Latin American urbanisation, with estimates suggesting that up to 80% of the urban landscape has been informally built. Despite its centrality in urban development, its integration into architectural education remains limited, revealing a gap between the realities of city-making and the professional training offered by universities. This study examines how architecture programmes in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador address urban informality and the extent to which they prepare future professionals to engage with the dominant modes of urban production in the region. Using a qualitative and comparative methodology, the curricula, course descriptions, and academic lines of 50 universities were analysed across three dimensions: (1) the thematic presence of concepts related to informality, (2) the degree of curricular integration—core, transversal, or tangential—and (3) pedagogical orientation, classified as technical–normative, social–critical, or interdisciplinary. The results reveal a fragmented and uneven incorporation of urban informality. Chile shows the highest relative presence, though often embedded indirectly within broader themes such as inequality or sustainability and framed through technical–normative approaches. Peru and Ecuador display even more limited integration, generally confined to isolated courses or electives. The study argues that this marginal incorporation weakens the preparation of professionals working in contexts where informality is a structural urban condition and calls for an “informal turn” in built-environment education. Full article