Splinters

Privatist urban explosion and its expansive wave on natural territories and relevant landscapes

Abstract

The Latin American city has exploded. As a consequence of this urbanity explosion, splinters emerge; logistics poles, precarious settlements, private urbanizations, are some of the typologies of the fragments released by the expansive wave on natural and rural territories.

In Uruguay we are assisting to a “boom” in planning and execution of private urbanizations as a mechanism for city reproduction and a preferred way of living for the upper social strata. Regulatory flexibility, increasingly powerful developer groups and the absence of public debate are some of the keys to understanding the multiplication of this type of development.

In this paper are marked some synthetic definition of the topic by analyzing the most evident urban and territorial processes associated with these kind of urbanization and their advance on relevant natural environments of the country. Finally, are proposed some alternatives for studying cumulative impacts with a prospective and integrative vision of natural resaqources, ecosystems and preexistences