Santiago expanded rapidly during the dictatorship & since, organized on a grid plan. Low income housing was sited on transit corridors. Much recent near-peri-urban is disconnected gated enclaves with own services. In hinterland, peri-urban expansion of older towns & modernization of rural economy.
urban real estate markets push out-migration to peri-urban, mainly car-based: more pressure due to geography. Enclaves get larger
Middle class culture favours the peri-urban gated community. Rural areas want to be ‘urban’ & many urban areas want ‘rural’.
Santiago is a primate city with large N-S gravity pull. Recent political changes shift towards indigenous economic activity, but most real estate controlled by elite wealth.
Climate issues
Temperature rise projection to 2100: 1.5 – 5.5 degrees average
Major seismic problems with San Ramon fault: link with climate change?
urban flash flooding & drought events set to increase. Reduced water availability affecting hydroelectricity, mining, agribusiness, human consumption.
Forest depletion to W, fire zone to NW. Generally arid landscape will increase in drought & heat. Major losses to agriculture in a high emissions scenario.
Urban impacts on land-use & land cover combine with climate change, causing soil & ecosystems loss.
Societal issues
Santiago Metro region extends to near the coast, with fertile valleys & forested hills, against the Cordillera of the Andes. A generally dry climate is set to get much drier.
Fragmented planning fails to connect with ecological patterns – or to provide infrastructure services & jobs in the right locations. Water / energy sectors lack integration of structure or policy.
Social divisions on the S side, between high-class residential areas next to existing social housing & local long-term community. Displacement of farming creates socio-economic problems with ‘rural gentrification’. Urban poverty is rising & causes political pressures.
Resilience through participatory processes has been explored, however this needs rolling out at a larger and continuous scale.
There is potential to increase the resilience to climate change by engaging with structural inequalities. Peri-urban is developing randomly around the system of rural residential plots: liberalisation policies bring transformations that policy makers cannot control.
Governance issues
Spatial governance is fragmented between 52 boroughs. Metropolitan area was planned on grid pattern, but the speed of peri-urban expansion seems beyond the current capacity of planning. Local governments are generally inwards & short termist.
Active civil society with pressure groups, lobby groups etc, however much is deeply embedded in structures of elite power
The political elite merges into business / real estate / extractive industries, with widespread clientelism & nepotism.
There may be underlying layers of cohesion and resilience, alongside with deep political-cultural divisions
