Spatial analysis of urban expansion and the incidence of housing policies in the city of General José de San Martín (Province of Chaco, Argentina)

Abstract

This work analyses the urban expansion of the city of General José de San Martín in the province of Chaco (Argentina) and identifies state housing plans as one of the main elements in the appearance of growth areas in the city. The research focuses on aspects such as the distribution and quantification of the surface of the new areas of expansion and land occupied by the housing complexes between 1911 and 2017. It is based on the application of remote sensing and geographic information systems for spatial analysis and cartographic representation. The main sources of information have been the satellite images from the Landsat 5 and 8 missions and vector format layers. The main result is to reveal the expansion of the urban area in the period analysed and the incidence of the execution of state housing complexes as one of the causes of this process. In this way it is possible to generate evidence regarding the degree of state intervention in the configuration of the current territorial model of the city.