Jardines residenciales en Santiago de Chile: Extensión, distribución y cobertura vegetal

Abstract

Residential gardens provide important vegetation cover in urban environments but there is little research in Latin America. This is the first study on the subject in Santiago de Chile. In Santiago 26 % of the urban area is covered by residential gardens. Even though there is a wide range of residential garden size, most of them measure between 74- 268 m2. The garden surface is mainly covered by trees and shrubs (37 %), followed by lawn (34 %), small buildings (26 %) while only 3 % have no vegetation cover at all. A high correlation between lot size and vegetation cover was detected (R 2 = 0.97) except for the city centre where the increase in lot size is associated with an increase in the built up area. The vegetation cover of residential gardens reaches 12000 hectares (19 % of the urban area) which surpasses that of public green spaces. Both lot size and building typology are the most important factors infl uencing cover and structure of vegetation in residential gardens. © Sociedad de Biología de Chile.