TOWARDS A LIVABLE URBANIZED DELTA REGION. SPATIAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PEARL RIVER DELTA

  • Diego Sepúlveda Carmona Delft University of Technology
  • Lei Qu Delft University of Technology
  • Yuting Tai Delft University of Technology
Palabras clave: Urbanization, Challenges, Strategies, The Pearl River Delta, Urbanización, desafíos, estrategias, delta del río Perla

Resumen

ABSTRACT
The Pearl river delta (PRD) is now one of the emerging economic centres in the world, where economic development is associated with extremely rapid urbanization. This mega-region started to develop in the late 1970s with a rural industrialization model, which was designed to absorb surplus rural labor. Such a model contributed greatly to economic development of the region in the 1980s, but also caused serious environmental issues, such as water and air pollution, loss of farmland, as well as deterioration of the ecosystem and living environment. Nowadays, this mega-region is being restructured with regional infrastructures and new town development, so as to have a more compact urban and regional development model. These new spatial development strategies have the advantages of improving the efficiency of land use, and facilitating fast urbanization process. However, they also lead to large scale changes in natural conditions and have caused great alterations to water environment dynamics. A better coordination between spatial planning and water management systems is in urgent need, because it determines two major issues related to the pressures caused by rapid urbanization on the physical environment: increasing flood risks and environmental deterioration. This chapter describes the formation of the PRD mega-region and its impact on the water system and natural environment. Furthermore, it introduces the latest spatial development strategies for this region, defined at both national and regional levels, the key challenges to be tackled and recommendations towards a better operability.

RESUMEN

El delta del río Perla (DRP) es ahora uno de los centros económicos emergentes en el mundo, donde el desarrollo económico está asociado con la urbanización extremadamente rápida. Esta mega-región comenzó a desarrollarse a finales de 1970 con un modelo de industrialización rural que fue diseñado para absorber la mano de obra rural excedente. Dicho modelo ha contribuido en gran medida al desarrollo económico de la región en la década de 1980, pero también causó serios problemas ambientales, tales como la contaminación del aire y del agua, la pérdida de tierras de cultivo, así como el deterioro del ecosistema y entorno de vida. Hoy en día, esta mega-región está siendo reestructurada con las infraestructuras regionales y el nuevo desarrollo de la ciudad, a fin de tener un modelo más compacto de avance urbano y regional. Estas nuevas estrategias de adelanto territorial tienen las ventajas de la mejora de la eficiencia de uso de la tierra, y facilitar el proceso de urbanización rápida. Sin embargo, también llevan a cambios a gran escala de las condiciones naturales y han causado alteraciones en la dinámica del medio ambiente acuático. Una mejor coordinación entre los sistemas espaciales de planificación y gestión del agua se necesita urgentemente, ya que determina dos aspectos importantes vinculados a las presiones causadas por la rápida urbanización sobre el medio físico: el aumento de los riesgos de inundaciones y el deterioro del medio ambiente. En este capítulo se describe la formación de la mega-región PRD y su impacto en el sistema de agua y el medio ambiente natural. Además, introduce las últimas estrategias de ordenación territorial para la región, que se define en los planos nacional y regional, los principales retos que deben abordarse y recomendaciones para lograr una mejor operatividad.

Biografía del autor

Diego Sepúlveda Carmona, Delft University of Technology
Designer and urban planner. He is graduated from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1996. He is Master in Urbanism from Delft University of technology in 1999. He received a PhD degree at the Department of Urbanism, at the Architecture Faculty of Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) in 2004. His research is focalize on evaluating the multi scalar interdependency of the spatial features at the regional development, on relation to the development
and impact of planning instruments relative to growing urban processes, socio-spatial effects and sustainable
development. He focuses his work on regional development within developing economies, studying the case of the mega Cities (Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo,
Jakarta, and Beijing). He is currently a researcher at Randstad Research Group for spatial planning and development at Delft University of technology.
Lei Qu, Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Doctor of Engineering/ posgrado. Assistant professor of Architecture Faculty DELF.
Yuting Tai, Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. PhD candidate in the Chair of Urban Design-Theory & Methods within the Department of Urbanism of the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology.

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Publicado
2014-01-01
Cómo citar
Sepúlveda Carmona, D., Qu, L., & Tai, Y. (2014). TOWARDS A LIVABLE URBANIZED DELTA REGION. SPATIAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PEARL RIVER DELTA. Revista M, 11(1), 8-23. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15332/rev.m.v11i1.949
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