Sustainable Parameters for Latin American Cities

Abstract

Over the last few decades, Latin American cities have been undergoing a rapid process of population increasing. With scarce investments in infrastructure, they are unable to meet the demands. Some of the consequences of this excessive population growth include a failure of the transport system, inefficient public services, the formation of urban heat islands, among other consequences, all of them contributing to a steep fall in life quality and energy consumption increasing. Given the precarious conditions observed in large Latin American cities, especially in metropolitan areas, and the disconnection between the urban built and natural environment surrounding them, there is a call for action, from intervention in the territory already consolidated, to the development of future cities through sustainable urban criteria. This paper presents some parameters to guide contemporary urban design criteria in the planning of sustainable cities. It started from a theoretical approach guided by international authors with different views on such parameters. The methodology is based on a qualitative study considering urban design issues relating to sustainability, such as urban management, adequacy of climate and place, regionalism, physical limitations of the city, the mixed uses, productive city, integration between urban and rural, and no polluting mobility.