Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Tena, being an Ecuadorian Amazonian city, is surrounded by protected areas and has natural green spaces within its urban configuration. This characteristic invites us to reconsider how human settlements, which are located in these ecosystems, can improve their relationship with the nature and the landscape, as indicated by the United Nations. This one promotes the construction of inclusive, connected, safe and accessible public spaces.   Therefore, this study aims to identify and categorize the green public spaces of the urban area of Tena city underneath the following parameters: surface, environmental, mobility and accessibility, services, cultural, security, government and social dynamics, economy and infrastructure. In addition, the indicators of green area per inhabitant and the proximity of the population to public spaces are analyzed, in relation to the data obtained from the census and the identification of green spaces. Consequently, the results of this study shows the coverage of accessible public spaces in the urban area of Tena city in relationship with their surface area and proximity in order to promote a network of green public spaces.

Urban growth is a process that invades rural areas lacking basic and public services. In the case of the city of Quito, many of its inhabitants made the decision to move to the Calderón parish, generating a significant division of the territory, grouping into areas lacking in planning, generating spatial segregation.   The purpose of this articule is to determine the evolution of the spatial segregation phenomenon over a period between the 1990 and 2010 censuses, making use of quantitative and qualitative information collected from various public sources, with which a mapping and tabulation in a matrix of categorization of variables whose score was weighted based on their importance in the quality of life of the population, which allowed to construct a cartography of the space with the clear identification of socioeconomic zones.   From this research process it was determined that, by 1990, the analyzed urban territory had 84 defined socioeconomic sectors, by 2001 it increased to 190 and by 2010 it reached 378 sectors, with great diversity in their characteristics, ratifying the presence of spatial segregation among the social groups that inhabit it.

This research project proposes a re-reading of spatial production processes in multi-ethnic and multicultural contexts of Ecuadorian Amazonian territories, adopting a specific ‘decolonial’.[1] In particular, the attempt is to highlight some particularities about the gender difference[2] that have been part of the dark side of the modern/ colonial organization, inherent in what Quijano (2000) describes as the coloniality of power.[3] The decolonial discourse, in its break with the Western patriarchal paradigms, claims gender and bodily knowledge as opposed to the abstract ones, replacing traditional methodologies of socio-spatial analysis. In this process feminist perspectives gain importance in order to identify neglected or hidden dwelling practices, ecologies and forms of spatial production. The main hypothesis supported here is that, the identification of such practices of spatial production through a corporal, decolonial and feminist view is fundamental for the redefinition of planning strategies.    

   Tena, being an Ecuadorian Amazonian city, is surrounded by protected areas and has natural green spaces within its urban configuration. This characteristic invites us to reconsider how human settlements, which are located in these ecosystems, can improve their relationship with the nature and the landscape, as indicated by the United Nations. This one promotes the construction of inclusive, connected, safe and accessible public spaces.  Therefore, this study aims to identify and categorize the green public spaces of the urban area of Tena city underneath the following parameters: surface, environmental, mobility and accessibility, services, cultural, security, government and social dynamics, economy and infrastructure. In addition, the indicators of green area per inhabitant and the proximity of the population to public spaces are analyzed, in relation to the data obtained from the census and the identification of green spaces.  The methodology is based on 3 parts: the collection and updating of data, identification and categorization of green public spaces and through geoprocesses the results of the aforementioned indicators are obtained.  Consequently, the results of this study shows the coverage of accessible public spaces in the urban area of Tena city in relationship with their surface area and proximity in order to promote a network of green public spaces. 

The Amazon is a territory in constant transformation motivated by resource extraction under development models that place capital over native peoples and nature. The changes are reflected in modes of occupation of the space modified with the implementation of infrastructure and facilities with western urban logic. The case study of the Punta de Ahuano facility is located in the Ahuano parish on the banks of the Napo River. It is an innovative bamboo structure financed with public funds in 2012 after the construction of the Jumandy airport. This article is derived from a previous project managed by the associations within the parish to recover the use of the facility after multiple attempts without success. The objective is to highlight the reflections obtained by applying interdisciplinary methodologies that combine ethnography and assessment matrices of public spaces based on Placemaking to search for a comprehensive and complementary approach to assess architectural structures. The main findings show contradictions between state planning and the dialogue of knowledge, the ways of inhabiting and conceiving the Amazonian spaces from collaborative planning, and the lack of community participation in planning and design processes. Finally, the sustainability of the Punta de Ahuano facility is in crisis because it was not enough to consider ecological materials when the territory and management were not considered as intrinsic principles of the design.

Al sur del río Orinoco, una serie de pequeños pueblos a lo largo de la carretera troncal que conecta a Venezuela con Brasil han tenido una larga tradición minera aurífera desde el siglo XIX. Aquí, las externalidades ambientales, sociales y económicos de la economía extractiva se sienten con gran fuerza. El área se encuentra en un ambiente frágil de bosques tropicales húmedos con gran potencial para otras formas de economía, pero hoy se ve seriamente comprometida por el reciente aumento de la minería de oro artesanal y en pequeña escala en la región. Para explorar el potencial de desarrollo endógeno en áreas periféricas de la Guayana venezolana, se eligió como caso de estudio el clúster de pueblos mineros formado por Guasipati, El Callao y Tumeremo porque presenta un conjunto de condiciones que pueden asociarse con el concepto de la región urbana policéntrica. En primer lugar, se evaluará el grupo de ciudades a través de la lente de la teoría del policentrismo para comprender si se puede denominar una región urbana policéntrica. Luego, se delinearán algunas intervenciones espaciales que pueden ayudar a estimular el crecimiento económico, aprovechando las posibilidades que brinda la estructura espacial existente del clúster y fomentando una colaboración más estrecha entre los centros. El objetivo de estas intervenciones es establecer las condiciones básicas para la generación de oportunidades de empleo alternativas y reducir la dependencia de la región de la extracción de recursos.

   South of the Orinoco River, a series of small towns along the trunk highway that connects Venezuela with Brazil have had a long gold mining tradition since the 19th century. Here, the environmental, social and economic externalities of the extractive economy are felt with great force. The area is in a fragile environment of humid tropical forests with great potential for other forms of economy, but today it is seriously compromised by the recent increase in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the region. To explore the endogenous development potential in peripheral areas of Venezuelan Guayana, the cluster of mining towns formed by Guasipati, El Callao and Tumeremo was chosen as a case study because it presents a set of conditions that can be associated with the concept of the polycentric urban region. First, the group of cities will be evaluated through the lens of polycentric theory to understand whether it can be called a polycentric urban region. Then, some spatial interventions will be outlined that can help stimulate economic growth, taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the existing spatial structure of the cluster and fostering closer collaboration between the centers. The objective of these interventions is to establish the basic conditions for the generation of alternative employment opportunities and to reduce the region’s dependence on resource extraction. 

This paper presents the first analyzes of the visits made in the disaster area, after the Pedernales earthquake of April 16, 2016. A group of engineers from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the National Polytechnic School carry out primary structural evaluations, which they are reported in files established by the MIDUVI (The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing). Various maps are presented with the classification or damage class of 58 evaluated structures, of which emphasis is placed on 23 structures corresponding to health. Additionally, photos of failures and structural pathologies post-earthquake are presented, which show recurrent anomalies in structures in the locality. The activities carried out by the delegation of professionals and collaborators are briefly presented, it is expected for a future eventual seismic activity in the country that the population, authorities and construction professionals visualize the changes to be made, to avoid material and of lives losses. Identification parameters are established for safety evaluations in structures after an earthquake, where the green color corresponds to inspected and the occupation is legally allowed, for the yellow color corresponds to restricted use and occupation in certain areas is prohibited, for the color red corresponds to unsafe and occupation is prohibited.

Este escrito desarrolla una aproximación a los fenómenos de urbanización que actualmente se producen en una parte del territorio amazónico ecuatoriano como manifestación del ‘urbanismo infraestructural’ y de los procesos extractivistas que se desarrollan en la región. Se parte de algunas hipótesis interpretativas sobre el papel de las infraestructuras (carreteras y ríos) para generar o transformar las dinámicas de producción del espacio urbano y construir nuevas ecologías. La investigación se basa en el estudio de las poblaciones de Zamora, Yantzaza y El Pangui, las cuales atraviesan fuertes procesos de transformación urbana marcados por condiciones de vulnerabilidad y desigualdad en el acceso a los recursos y por una relación incierta y débil con los sistemas socio-ecológicos locales. Finalmente, reflexiona sobre los retos que afronta la urbanización amazónica para lograr el equilibrio en un territorio diverso, rico y complejo.

The Quito Metro Project is a benchmark for underground construction worldwide, it constitutes the highest underground train in the world with reference to sea level ; the most important work of the Metropolitan District of Quito. In this important work it was possible to count on technological development and the safest method of tunnel construction through (EBP). This article describes all the technical characteristics of the segments or segments of reinforced concrete with steel, polypropylene or mixed fiber that cover the Quito Metro line tunnel. In the project, 3 EBP called. This article will present physical, geometric, complementary, special characteristics and behavior in relation to the efforts of the segments. The segment manufacturing process involves in-line production with waiting or stop points where all these 18 points are essential for the segment's quality to be adequate; Care and neatness must be maintained at each stop to comply with the construction process since if there is a flaw in the process, this has a direct impact on the final quality of the segments, the mistake in one of the points of the procedure will bring about losses in all the resources to be able to carry out the diagnosis, evaluation, repair or rejection of a segment. A segment that is not in accordance with the final product and does not comply with all the technical characteristics cannot be used inside the tunnel since it would constitute a danger to the stability of the tunnel and the passage of the train.