Megacity Buenos Aires and its most recent conurbation impact

BUZAI, GUSTAVO; BAXENDALE, CLAUDIA; MONTES GALBÁN, ELOY

Sustainable Developmen. Crossing Borders, Breaking Stereotypes

Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego

Lugar: Varsovia; Año: 2021; p. 101 - 113

Nowadays, the world has 33 megacities ? urban areas which surpass 10,000,000 inhabitants (United Nations, 2018) ? and six of them are located in Latin America: São Paulo, Brazil (21,650,000); Mexico City, Mexico (21,580,000); Buenos Aires, Argentina (14,967,000); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (13,293,000); Bogotá, Colombia (10,574,000); and Lima, Peru (10,391,000). From a physical point of view, they are the largest constructed urban areas. They are urban agglomerations of thousands of km2, with physical structures that make an orientation towards global markets possible. Moreover, they are signifi cantly infl uenced in an international manner: from a political point of view, through deregulation; from a social point of view, through socio-spatial polarisation; and from an ecological point of view, through the highest risk probability (Borsdorf, Coy, 2009). One of the aspects which have been the centre of attention as regards the spatial evolution of megacities in Latin America is their large fringes. Firstly, the physical extension of the central city is considered; secondly, the conurbation process, which physically merges the city with neighbouring cities; and fi nally, the improvement in communication which favours its further extension by means of the creation of gated communities, aimed at social groups devoted to economic activities of the CBD (Central Business District) as the top of the interurban centre hierarchy. Finally, some egacities develop outer citieswithin the peripheral urban structure that are semi-autonomous urban spaces,which causes the fragmentation of their outer area into closed polygons that concentrate services and job positions in the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the economy.