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"Urbanization Caribbean Area."
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Phylogenetic signal and evolutionary correlates of urban tolerance in a widespread neotropical lizard clade
Urbanization is intensifying worldwide, and while some species tolerate and even exploit urban environments, many others are excluded entirely from this new habitat. Understanding the factors that underlie tolerance of urbanization is thus of rapidly growing importance. Here, we examine urban tolerance across a diverse group of lizards: Caribbean members of the neotropical genus Anolis. Our analyses reveal that urban tolerance has strong phylogenetic signal, suggesting that closely related species tend to respond similarly to urban environments. We propose that this characteristic of urban tolerance in anoles may be used to forecast the possible responses of species to increasing urbanization. In addition, we identified several key ecological and morphological traits that tend to be associated with tolerance in Anolis. Specifically, species experiencing hot and dry conditions in their natural environment and those that maintain higher body temperatures tend to have greater tolerance of urban habitats. We also found that tolerance of urbanization is positively associated with toepad lamella number and negatively associated with ventral scale density and relative hindlimb length. The identification of factors that predispose a species to be more or less urban tolerant can provide a starting point for conservation and sustainable development in our increasingly urbanized world.
Journal Article
Placebo urban interventions
The implementation of the Smart City (SC) model in Santiago, Chile has not heralded any significant interventions in terms of scale, urban impact, amount invested, technological innovation or architectural design. Instead, material interventions have been small and have had little more than a superficial impact upon the perceptions of citizens. The significance of observing ‘Smart’ interventions in Santiago involves analysing their implementation under a provincialising lens in order to observe the way local experience transforms monist ways of thinking about SCs. Based on ethnographic observation of an SC intervention (in Paseo Bandera, Santiago de Chile), four principles of intervention were identified: democratisation of the city, spatial appropriation by citizens, social and technological innovation and local and territorialised interventions. These principles help to identify the intervention as an urban placebo, which the article argues works through the fictions of effective interventions and urban image improvement that seek to participate in worlding practices whilst, in reality, very little is being improved or effectively addressed in the city. Paseo Bandera SC intervention presents a narrative of modern, sustainable and technologically advanced urban planning in the form of specific material interventions, when in fact it involves very little modernity, sustainability or technology, and is little more than a continuation and evolution of the neoliberal urban model that exists in Chile.
智慧城市模式在智利圣地亚哥的实施，在规模、城市影响、投资额、技术创新或建筑设计方面并未带来任何重大干预。相反，物质干预一直很小，对市民的感知只产生了表面的影响。在圣地亚哥观察“智慧”干预措施的意义在于，从一个地方性的视角分析它们的实施情况，以观察当地经验如何改变看待智慧城市的一元论思维方式。基于对智利圣地亚哥的帕索班德拉 (Paseo Bandera) 的一个智慧城市干预的人种学观察，我们确定了四项干预原则：城市民主化、市民对空间的占有、社会和技术创新以及当地和属地干预。这些原则有助于明确干预作为城市安慰剂的功能。本文认为，这种做法通过虚构有效干预和城市形象改善（从而寻求参与世界实践）发挥作用，但在现实中，改善乏善可陈、城市问题也没有得到有效解决。帕索班德拉的智慧城市干预呈现了一个现代、可持续和技术先进的城市规划的叙事，其以具体的物质干预为表现形式，但在事实上几乎不涉及现代性、可持续性或高科技，只不过是智利现有的新自由主义城市模式的延续和演变。
Journal Article
Heat Exposure and Youth Migration in Central America and the Caribbean
We employ a triple difference-in-difference approach, using censuses and georeferenced temperature data, to quantify heat effects on internal migration in Central America and the Caribbean. A 1-standard deviation increase in heat would affect the lives of 7,314 and 1,578 unskilled young women and men. The effect is smaller than observed in response to droughts and hurricanes but could increase with climate change. Interestingly, youth facing heat waves are more likely to move to urban centers than when exposed to disasters endemic to the region. Research identifying the implications of these choices and interventions available to minimize distress migration is warranted.
Journal Article
Urban ecosystem Services in Latin America: mismatch between global concepts and regional realities?
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most urbanized and biologically diverse regions in the world but is often characterized by weak environmental governance and socioeconomic inequalities. Given large expanses of intact biomes, a long history of pre-Colombian civilizations, and recent urbanization trends, the urban ecosystem services (UES) concept has the potential to address issues of well-being for its citizens. We review relevant regional and global literature and use expert-based knowledge to identify the state of the art of the UES concept as applicable to green spaces in LAC and elucidate three overarching guidelines for management and future research needs: 1. LAC cities can be socio-ecologically unique; 2. Drivers of UES in LAC can be different than in other regions; and 3. Context and demand need to be accounted for when valuing UES. Overall, we show that research on UES is mostly from the global north and rarely accounts for the diverse and complex socio-political and ecological drivers of LAC’s urbanization processes. We find that, as in other regions, the biophysical context and land use policies play a major role on UES provision. However, socioeconomic inequalities and weak governance are key drivers in UES supply and demand in LAC. Context-specific information on how to promote, educate, and apply UES is particularly important, not only in LAC, but in other regions where inequities, rapid urbanization, and climate change effects are stressing socio-political and ecological systems and their adaptive capacities. Standardized approaches from developed countries should be used to complement - not substitute – LAC context specific approaches for studying and applying UES. We suggest that improved research funding and local governance can also provide critical strategies, information and the means for more effective management, planning, and equitable provision of UES.
Journal Article
A neglected issue: informal settlements, urban development, and disaster risk reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean
PurposeThis paper introduces the state of informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it explores potential relationships between informal settlements and national policies on urban development and disaster risk reduction, especially on how risk governance and disaster resilience are conceived and practiced by governments.Design/methodology/approach17 Habitat III National Reports issued during the preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda in 2016 are analyzed using statistics and qualitative methods. Some quantitative variables, such as access to drinking water and sewerage in the region, are combined with qualitative data from references to the Sendai Framework and national urban policies in the mentioned reports. Countries in the study include Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.FindingsResults show that the situation of informal settlements in the region is complex and presents two different realities that coexist: one group of countries in which provision of basic urban services poses great challenges for a significant proportion of the urban population, while the other group in which urban informality and precariousness persists despite better statistics. Risk governance and disaster resilience principles are scarcely articulated in existing urban development discourses in the region.Originality/valueThe preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda allowed to conduct an original updated cross-country analysis and to identify cross-cutting issues on informality, risk reduction, and urban development in the region.
Journal Article
Compact cities and economic productivity in Mexico
This paper examines the contingent nature of agglomeration economies. Existing empirical evidence that compact cities are more productive is mostly from countries and regions with highly productive service sectors, such as the USA or Europe. We hypothesise that this relationship will differ in countries where land-intensive manufacturing activities are more productive than services. In this paper, we test this hypothesis using data from the 100 largest cities in Mexico in 1990, 2000 and 2010. Under a number of specifications, we find that the most common measures of urban compactness are, in fact, negatively associated with economic productivity. This holds even when instrumenting urban spatial structure with the underlying geology of urban areas. The findings suggest a need for greater attention to national economic structure in the study of agglomeration economies, and that policy agendas focused on compact urbanisation take account of the needs of the manufacturing sector.
本文考察了集聚经济的偶然性。现有的经验证据表明紧凑型城市生产率更高，这些证据 大多来自拥有高生产率服务部门的国家和地区，如美国或欧洲。我们假设，在土地密集 型制造业活动比服务业生产率高的国家，这种关系会有所不同。在本文中，我们使用墨 西哥100个最大城市1990年、2000年和2010年的数据来检验这一假设。在一系列参数下， 我们发现最常见的城市紧凑性衡量标准实际上与经济生产率负相关。即使在利用城市地 区的基础地理学测量城市空间结构时也是如此。研宄结果表明，在研宄集聚经济时，需 要更加关注国家经济结构，注重紧凑城市化的政策议程应考虑到制造业的需求。
Journal Article
On urban studies in Brazil
This essay discusses some key ideas and debates about urban studies in Brazil, considered historiographically, from the mid-1900s to the present. It presents the main components and particularities of what emerges as the Brazilian matrix of urban studies, interrogating the most influential work in the field with the country’s own experiences of industrialisation and urbanisation. It discusses some key urban debates of the 21st century, namely new planning models associated with globalisation, global mega-events, public–private partnerships, inner-city gentrification, housing and city financialisation, rising forms of urban warfare and social control in slums (favelas), and new activisms and urban insurgencies. Through this analysis, we point to contradictions and tensions in relation to European and North American urban theory, calling for the need to formulate new categories and hypotheses to better understand the unequal and extreme processes resulting from violent expansion of capitalist relations over the entire planet, and comment on the new practices and forms of social mobilisation emerging from turbulent contexts.
本文从历史学的角度探讨从20世纪中期到现在巴西城市研究的一些关键观点和争论。我们展现了巴西城市研究领域的主要组成部分和特殊性，用巴西自身的工业化和城市化经验来探究该领域最具影响力的工作。我们探讨了21世纪的一些关键城市辩论，即与全球化相关的新规划模式、全球大型活动、公私伙伴关系、市中心绅士化、住房和城市金融化、贫民窟 (favelas) 城市战争和社会控制的新形式、以及新的激进主义和城市骚乱。通过这一分析，我们指出了相对欧洲和北美城市理论而言的矛盾和张力，呼吁制定新的类别和假设，以更好地理解资本主义关系在全球暴力扩张所导致的不平等和极端过程，并对动荡背景下出现的新的社会动员实践和形式进行评论
Journal Article
The effects of land price in the peri-urban fringe of Mexico City
In many developing countries, urban growth is characterised by the emergence of informal housing at the periphery. Nevertheless, there is little evidence based on data from informal land markets and, in general, studies focusing on such markets often neglect environmental factors. Therefore, to contribute to these research gaps, this article aims to enhance our understanding of land markets in informal land parcels and their relationship to environmental amenities, by providing empirical evidence from Mexico City. The article estimates a hedonic pricing model using robust ordinary least squares with a SHAC (Spatial Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent) inference, including structural, environmental, neighbourhood and accessibility features. Results provide empirical insights regarding the way this land market behaves in the periurban area. Our findings reveal that informal land parcel purchasers are willing to pay for basic services such as access to piped water, proximity to schools and accessibility features such as being close to city centre, motorways and underground stations. Although a positive relationship between land price and distance to the nearest forest or Protected Natural Area is highlighted, it is low, meaning that individuals are largely ambivalent about environmental amenities. Therefore, the problem of irregular settlements could be approached from two different angles. Firstly, informal land buyers will not desist from invading and modifying natural areas without a comprehensive urban and environmental policy, oriented towards changing the perception of green areas as potential urbanisation opportunities. Secondly, public policy needs to solve the housing supply crisis, considering the characteristics presented here.
在许多发展中国家，城市增长的特点是城市周边出现了非正规住房。然而，基于非正规土地市场数据的证据很少，总体而言，关注此类市场的研究往往忽视环境因素。为了填补这些研究空白，本文旨在通过提供来自墨西哥城的经验证据，增强我们对非正规地块土地市场及其与环境设施的关系的理解。本文使用稳健的普通最小二乘法来估计享乐定价模型，并得出了一个SHAC（空间异方差性和自相关一致性）推断，其中涵盖结构、环境、邻里和可达性特征。研究结果提供了关于城市周边地区土地市场行为方式的经验见解。我们的调查结果显示，非正规的地块购买者愿意为基本服务付费，如通水、靠近学校和无障碍设施（如靠近市中心、高速公路和地铁站）。虽然研究结果显示了地价和与最近的森林或自然保护区的距离之间的正相关关系，但这种相关性很低，这意味着个人一般对环境设施抱有矛盾心理。因此，不正规住区的问题可以从两个不同的角度来看待。首先，在没有全面的城市和环境政策（这些政策旨在纠正人们把绿地当做潜在城市化开发机会的错误看法）的情况下，非正规土地购买者不会停止入侵和改造自然区域。其次，考虑到研究呈现的特点，公共政策需要解决住房供应危机。
Journal Article
Climate change, heat, and mortality in the tropical urban area of San Juan, Puerto Rico
Extreme heat episodes are becoming more common worldwide, including in tropical areas of Australia, India, and Puerto Rico. Higher frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme heat episodes are triggering public health issues in most mid-latitude and continental cities. With urbanization, land use and land cover have affected local climate directly and indirectly encouraging the Urban Heat Island effect with potential impacts on heat-related morbidity and mortality among urban populations. However, this association is not completely understood in tropical islands such as Puerto Rico. The present study examines the effects of heat in two municipalities (San Juan and Bayamón) within the San Juan metropolitan area on overall and cause-specific mortality among the population between 2009 and 2013. The number of daily deaths attributed to selected causes (cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, pneumonia, and kidney disease) coded and classified according to the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases was analyzed. The relations between elevated air surface temperatures on cause-specific mortality were modeled. Separate Poisson regression models were fitted to explain the total number of deaths as a function of daily maximum and minimum temperatures, while adjusting for seasonal patterns. Results show a significant increase in the effect of high temperatures on mortality, during the summers of 2012 and 2013. Stroke (relative risk = 16.80, 95% CI 6.81–41.4) and cardiovascular diseases (relative risk = 16.63, 95% CI 10.47–26.42) were the primary causes of death most associated with elevated summer temperatures. Better understanding of how these heat events affect the health of the population will provide a useful tool for decision makers to address and mitigate the effects of the increasing temperatures on public health. The enhanced temperature forecast may be a crucial component in decision making during the National Weather Service Heat Watches, Advisories, and Warning process.
Journal Article