Unplanned Urban Growth and its Effect on the Sustainability

Abstract

This work exposes a methodology to assess and to identify areas of greater urban vulnerability due to imbal- ances generated by spontaneous urban growth. The residential sector, basic infrastructure services, occupation in the territory, its evolution in terms of growth, energy needs and their respective emission of pollutants are evaluated. In relation to the basic infrastructure services, electricity and natural gas networks are analyzed. The offer is analyzed from its qualities, with the coverage of each network and the users' opinions (demand). With the obtained results, maps were built to identify homo- geneous areas in order to define the growing unsustainability. The energetic-environment problems raised from the ´70 decade and the globalization effects have significantly im- pacted in the organization and reorganization process of the territory, as well as the degradation of the Habitat and of the natural resources. Among the main consequences we can mention the socio-spatial fragmentation, in particular in the urban area, establishing significant imbalances and ine- qualities mainly in the undeveloped countries(1). In Argentina this fragmentation process, causes distortions, in relation to: inefficient management; a significant disper- sion and fragmentation of information; and the lack of ap- propriate tools to systematize data and to develop accurate diagnoses. The consequences involve socio-economic and socio-thermodynamic imbalance problems (interaction be- tween the laws of thermodynamics and the users behaviour), reaching the indiscriminate overexploitation of resources, the inequity of the expenditures, and unsustainable degrada- tion of the environment. In particular, the metropolitan area of La Plata, capital of the Buenos Aires province, conceived as the first planned contemporary city from Argentina, has registered, in spite of the socio-economic crisis of 1983/2001 an unplanned growth of the peri-urban areas. Its consequences have been an un- controlled growth that modified the original characteristics of the city. That peri-urban growth altered the original hy- gienists' precepts of the city, on the basis of its layout, structure and quality of the main urban systems. These