Typologies of urban ravines for adaptive planning to climate change in Loja, Ecuador

Abstract

Across civilizations, water and geography shaped patterns in building urban networks, serving as inputs for life, food production, transportation, and collective identity. However, nowadays these blue networks have been excluded amid urbanization, leading to their partial or total loss due to changes in land use and improper occupation, which heightens threats and reduces the ability to adapt to climate change. This reality is redrawn in Loja, an Andean city in southern Ecuador, crossed by three rivers and 44 ravines in an irregular relief, where the research sought to identify and delimit ravine typologies to define planning guidelines using an urban-environmental approach adapted to climate change. The methodology was structured in two phases: in the first, based on cartographic information, six variables affecting urban adaptation were identified and normalized: landslides, overuse, forests and plantations, sewerage, urban consolidation, and the diffuse potential pollution index. In the second, with the participation of experts and through the Hierarchical Analytical Process, the variables and weights to be considered for evaluating the adaptive capacity of ravines in the face of climate change were defined, and, as a result, typologies were established. Thus, six urban ravine typologies were identified, with the largest group being "Low Risk - Low Coverage - Medium Infrastructure." According to the experts, the decisive variables for prioritizing ravines were landslides, forests and plantations, and land overuse.