Ana María LUCERO PERALTA, Organización/institución: Municipio de Otavalo, Ecuador
Patricio CASTRO ANDRADE, IntSolutions, Ecuador
Esmeralda GUEVARA, MDCPS, United States
The evolutionary transition to the modern urban environment has impacted many aspects of human life, nowhere more evident than in the great mountain cities of South America. Fundamental human needs like water, food, electricity, shelter and transport, along with family life and interpersonal relationships, are all in flux, but anchored by history’s longest on-going mountain habitation. Revered geographical dichotomies are now understand as revolving binaries (Guevara & Frolich, 2020). The human and the natural become inseparable when chagras, complete with chickens and cuyes, infiltrate the cityscape and water systems are maintained by mingas or communal work parties. Global South and Global North interplay in a cityscape where neighborhoods indistinguishable from a Global-North style suburb border barter-and-subsistence-based communities yet fully integrated into the “modern” social economy of the city. Rural and urban become blurred with the development of integrated urban farms. Even wealth and poverty are understood, not in terms of material possessions, but as a binary tradeoff where over-consumption due to extreme urban economic wealth can lead to devastating spiritual poverty.
Project Ibarra-Verde analyzes how fundamental human needs are met in a mid-sized Andean city that has been growing exponentially for the last 30 years (Frolich et al., 2017). GIS technology is used to visualize water and electricity use, overlaid by social, economic, cultural and ecological variables, thereby revealing key factors that influence city growth and neighborhood conformation. The availability of these real-time data through an interactive user experience represents a big step towards “smart-city” planning in favor of quality of life for all while the grand Andean historical legacy demands recognition of a culture and environment based on El Buen Vivir for all residents of the region (Sarmiento& Hitchner, 2017).
Mots clés : Ibarra, Ecuador|human ecology|Buen Vivir|mountain cities|binaries
A104077LF