Construction Of A Peri-Urban Space Typology For La Plata District (Argentina)

FREDIANI, JULIETA C.

Salerno

Conferencia; International Conference of Territorial Intelligence. Territorial intelligence and culture of development.; 2009

ENTI - European Network of Territorial Intelligence

This paper explores the construction of a typology of peri-urban spaces in the La Plata District through the analysis of 11 case studies, located in different sectors of the peri-urban region of La Plata. This subject matter lies within the framework of a Doctoral Thesis in Geography that I?m currently working on, entitled: Residential Expansion Logics and Trends in Peri-urban Areas of Medium sized Cities. Case study: La Plata District. 1990-2006.The City of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province (Argentina), has a population of approximately 575 thousand (2001) that has gone beyond the original urban fabric (central area) to the periphery, following the transportation infrastructure, particularly the links to the Federal District. In parallel with this growth the periphery underwent some structural transformations, incorporating new commercial, service and recreational activities, increasing its autonomy from the traditional center. In the last few decades, emigration to the periphery in search of new job opportunities and a new habitat created led to the occupation of land in the physical limits of the city, more specifically in the border between urban and non-urban areas, the so-called peri-urban space.In this context we present the process and results of the method for the construction of a typology of peri-urban spaces for the district, according to a group of socio-territorial indicators, derived from direct observation, fieldwork, land plot surveys in the sectors under study and secondary sources. This is an alternative procedure for multi-variable analysis of statistical data, a method often used in social research.This allowed for the stratification of the peri-urban spaces of the district through the analytic-statistical process for gauging the selected socio-territorial variables. Taking as a starting point the conception of the territory as a complex system, the proposed methodology for the construction of typologies for peri-urban spaces presents a multi-criteria nature. In this sense, and in spite of the predominantly qualitative character of the phenomenon being studied, the quantitative approach proves itself essential to analyze a reality as multiple and complex as the one under consideration. The coordination of different methods ?statistic and interrelating quali-quantitative variables? lets us create a comprehensive vision of the territorial problems posed by the peri-urban spaces of La Plata. The importance of creating a typology of peri-urban spaces for the La Plata District lies basically in the need to guide, based on our findings, the future selection of fewer cases, in which we intend to analyze more in depth the logics and trends that characterize residential growth in those spaces of the district?s periphery. This is how the case study becomes a useful research tool for our work.We selected number of indicators and indexes to build the proposed typology, they relate to the following six variables: 1. Population characteristics (demographics), 2. Land use, 3. Infrastructure, 4. Utilities, 5. Occupation logic and 6. Valorization - depreciation processes.