Applicability of international sustainability criteria to evaluate the urban design of peripheral districts of formal and informal origin in Bogotá

Abstract

The international theory of urban design has proposed normative criteria to evaluate the urban design of neighborhoods aiming to ensure integral sustainability of new city developments. These criteria were operationalized through neighborhood sustainability assessment tools, such as the American Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhoods (LEED-ND®). Although similar tools are being developed in Latin America, studies critically addressing the applicability of these criteria to different models of formal and informal development of local neighborhoods are still scarce. Therefore, this study intends to contribute to this discussion through the application of these criteria to a sample of eight neighborhoods of formal and informal development in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. To this end, both quantitative data from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and qualitative data from the latest citizen perception survey were used. Results show that these criteria are applicable to the Latin American environment by adjusting some standards in street design, coverage of rapid public transportation, and density; however, the measurement methodology does not capture the informal transformations that can contribute to sustainability.