Suchergebnisse

Considerando la creciente importancia y las altas tasas de crecimiento de muchas ciudades medianas en América Latina, el enfoque de la investigación sobre aspectos de sustentabilidad en ciudades no primarias resulta ser de suma importancia. En los últimos dos años un grupo de investigadores de América Latina y Europa ha estudiado -dentro del marco de dos proyectos de investigación de la Unión Europea (programa ALFA)- padrones de crecimiento y opciones para una sustentabilidad urbana ele un número selecto ele ciudades en países andinos. El objetivo ele este artículo es presentar una introducción tanto al papel como a las posibilidades y limitaciones de ciudades medianas, así como discutir el concepto de un desarrollo sustentable en los Andes tropicales y proponer un marco conceptual para el estudio de la sustentabilidad urbana en América Latina. Resumido en un cuadro se establecen las condiciones básicas para la sustentabilidad urbana, sus mayores objetivos, así como un número de estrategias específicas para su implementación. Dado que las ciudades están estrechamente ligadas a su respectivo hinterland, un modelo conceptual resume los diferentes factores y parámetros espaciales de una región sustentable, así como sus relaciones con unidades espaciales mayores. Un segundo modelo conceptual se refiere a las dimensiones temporales y espaciales de la sustentabilidad urbana y a su importancia para el medio ambiente natural, la economía, el individuo y la sociedad. Finalmente se presentan. en forma de un modelo, las diferentes etapas necesarias para lograr la sustentabilidad urbana junto con los cinco aspectos más importantes: sustentabilidad ecológica, cultural, económica, social y política. Considering the growing importance and the high growth rates of many medium-sized cities in Latin america, a research focus on sustainability aspects of non-primate cities appears to be of a timely importance. In the last two years, a group of researchers from Latin America and Europe has examined -within the framework of two EU-ALFA research projects- growth patterns and options for urban sustainability of a selected number of cities in Andean countries. The objective of this paper is to give an introduction into the role, chances and limitations of medium-sized cities. Lo discuss the concept of sustainable development in the tropical Andes, and to propose a conceptual framework for urban sustainability research in Latin America. With the aid of a summarizing lable the basic preconditions for urban sustainability, its major objectives, and a number of specific implementation strategies are portrayed. As cities are closely linked to their surrounding region, a conceptual model summarizes the different factors and spatial parameters of a sustainable region and its linkages to higher level spatial units. A second conceptual model refers to the temporal and spatial dimensions of urban sustainability and its relevance for the natural environment, the economy, individual persons, and the society. Finally, the different stages towards the achievement of urban sustainability are summarized in a model, together with the five major aspects of sustainability: environmental, cultural, economic, social and political sustainability.

Trotz der für den Menschen scheinbar schwierigen Umwelt- und Lagefaktoren boten Hochgebirge, besonders in tropischen Regionen, Ansatzpunkte für eine frühe Besiedlung und sogar für Hochkulturen. Während viele Hochgebirgsregionen heute periphere Räume mit Abwanderungstendenzen und Wüstungsprozessen sind, zeichnen sich andere als dynamisch wachsende Agglomerationen aus. Isolierte ländliche Hochgebirgssiedlungen mögen noch immer, zumindest auf den ersten Blick, einen Eindruck von Tradition und funktionaler Kontinuität vermitteln. Aber ein Großteil der Gebirgsbevölkerung ist heute mit der »Außenwelt«, mit städtischen Zentren und angrenzenden tiefer gelegenen Regionen, durch Verkehrs- und Kommunikationsanbindungen, durch Handelsbeziehungen und durch soziale Kontakte verbunden. Viele Siedlungen in Hochgebirgen sind im Lauf ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung durch einen wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Strukturwandel gekennzeichnet. Heute verlaufen diese Veränderungsprozesse oft schneller und tiefgreifender. Naturgeographische Phänomene und Ereignisse, wie geomorphologische und hydrographischen Risiken oder die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels, aber auch neue politische, wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Entwicklungen, stellen die Gebirgsbevölkerung vor große Herausforderungen und erfordern neue Anpassungsstrategien. Population and settlement structures in high mountains: The often apparently difficult locational and environmental conditions notwithstanding, are high mountains, especially in the tropics, foci of early settlement and even advanced civilizations. While many high mountain areas continue to be peripheral realms with trends of outmigration and settlement abandonment, have others developed into dynamically growing agglomerations. Remote rural mountain settlements may still convey the impression of tradition and functional continuity. However today most mountain people are connected to the outside world by effective transportation- and communication links, by trade relations, and by social contacts. Many mountain settlements have experienced in the course of their historical development economic and social structural transformations. Today, these changes are often more profound and occur at a faster pace. Natural phenomena and events, such as geomorphic or hydrographic risks or the repercussions of the climate change, but also political, economic, social, and cultural developments, present great challenges for the mountain populations and require new adaptation strategies

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), the book elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of religion, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management approaches. Indigeneity and the Sacred explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reconstituted as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity