ESP 494 – Engl for Arch/Civil Eng.

Prof. Belliard.

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/11/latin-america-urbanisation-city-growth

Latin America struggles to cope with

record urban growth
UN report casts new light on urban migration in Latin America, but
forecasts improved living conditions for city dwellers
Paulo A Paranagua

Urban sprawl ... the Rio das Pedras shantytown in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Vanderlei
Almeida/Getty

Latin America is no longer a largely rural region. After 60 years of chaotic but rapid
urban development, four-fifths of its population now live in towns or cities, a prey
to all the ills of modernity and globalisation. Despite the fact that exports from
these countries depend mainly on farming and mining, more than two-thirds of
their gross national product comes from cities, home to services and industry.
Although Latin America has huge expanses of territory, nowhere else has achieved
this level of urbanisation.

In its most recent report on the state of the world's cities, focusing on trends in
Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme (UN-Habitat) casts new light on the contrasts. Urbanisation is a
positive process, it concludes, despite the trauma, violence and environmental
degradation sometimes involved. The rural exodus is irreversible and almost at an
end in most countries. By 2050, 90% of Latin America's population will be in towns
and cities. Brazil and the southern cone may reach this level by 2020.

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The cities are steadily expanding, sometimes outstripping the rise in population
two or three-fold, due to urban sprawl. UN-Habitat's experts oppose this trend and
advocate taller buildings, to limit outward growth and boost population density.
This, they believe, is the price to pay to manage urban areas efficiently and secure
sustainable development, concentrating the infrastructure necessary for city
dwellers.

Inequality and violence are the main problems cited. Latin American cities are the
most unequal and often most dangerous places in the world, with social divisions
hardwired into the urban fabric. The geographical segregation is visible to all. Rio
de Janeiro, for instance, is a city divided between its residential districts and
favelas.

Some 111 million Latin Americans (out of a total of 588 million) live in shanty
towns. Improving such dwellings and their surroundings has contributed to their
stability, all the more necessary given the housing shortage. About 50m new homes
are needed. But the answer is not to move the slum population to the outskirts of
cities, because it would take them away from their work and modern amenities.

Despite efforts in the past 10 years to redistribute riches, 122 million city residents
still live in poverty. The informal economy, with the associated lack of welfare
coverage, hits young people and women particularly hard.

The existence of urban territories controlled by, or at the mercy of, organised crime
and drug dealers illustrates the complexity of the challenge posed by security.
Insecurity is the prime concern for most people in Latin America, ahead of jobs.
The poor are the first to suffer from the widespread violence, and their makeshift
homes are the most exposed to extreme weather events and natural disasters.

The region's 16,000 cities include eight megalopolises, each with more than 5
million people, and a growing number of medium conurbations, some just as
innovative as their giant counterparts. The formation of these massive cities, home
to 65 million, raises problems for regional cooperation. Half the urban population
of Latin America is packed into medium-sized cities, but they find it hard to
balance their budgets, often requiring the support of central government.

But the UN-Habitat report is resolutely upbeat, asserting that Latin America has
reached a turning point and could be entering a "new cycle of urban transition",
heralding improved living conditions for city dwellers. Thanks to devolution, local
government now has valuable experience which deserves to be better shared.

In addition to paying off national debt and making the economy less vulnerable to
international crises, Latin American countries have another asset: a "demographic
bonus", with an active population exceeding the number of children and seniors,
opening a window of opportunity forecast to last 30 years. The report says this
period should be used to reclaim urban space, upgrade infrastructure and services,
encourage local jobs, social and cultural diversity, and sustainable development,
boost territorial cohesion and inclusiveness, and reduce inequality.

This article originally appeared in Le Monde