1st Edition

Uncertain Regional Urbanism in Venezuela Government, Infrastructure and Environment

By Fabio Capra Ribeiro Copyright 2021
    232 Pages 29 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    232 Pages 29 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Uncertain Regional Urbanism in Venezuela explores the changes cities face when they become metropolises, forming expanding regions which create both potential and problems within settlements. To do so, it focuses on three metropolitan areas located in Venezuela’s Center-North region: Caracas, Maracay and Valencia, designated as "Camava."

    Considering three core topics, government and territorial administration, infrastructure and environment, as well as looking at the reciprocal impact, this book describes and analyzes the determinant variables that characterize the phenomenon of regional urbanization in this area and in the wider Global South. It includes documentary research, semi-structured interviews and Delphi methodology, involving a total of forty experts from different disciplines to build a comprehensive outlook on the situation.

    This book presents a broader understanding of the region to encourage a more sustainable and knowledge-based development plan, moving away from the exploitation of natural resources, with six future-oriented scenarios to consider. This is a much-needed study in the urban regions of Venezuela, which will be of interest to academics and researchers in Latin American studies, the Global South, architecture and planning.

     

    Introduction

    Chapter 1. Mapping the complexity of a poorly studied case

    The urban region Caracas-Maracay-Valencia

    Three attempts to deny the reality

    A compound perspective to approach a complex case

    Knowledge and foresight

    The difficulties to investigate in Venezuela nowadays

    Strategies to operate in a harsh context

    Chapter 2. The formation of the main urban region of Venezuela

    Camava definitions: what has been said

    Strategic position, natural conditions and sea proximity

    First concentration, centuries of an archipelago country

    Second concentration, from one caudillo to another

    Third concentration, more than ever

    Chapter 3. Three factors to understand a harsh reality

    Recently dead metropolitan government

    Once decent infrastructure

    No place for nature

    Nothing less, nothing more, just Camava

    Chapter 4. Agreement on the complex future

    Not-so-uncertain Delphi results

    Incoming transversal conditions

    Chapter 5. Camava’s future expectation

    Five scenarios for Camava

    Looking through the scenarios

    Chapter 6. Synthesizing strengths and weaknesses

    A more honest future

    Final thoughts

    Biography

    Fabio Capra Ribeiro is Associate Professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He is a practicing architect, with a Master’s degree in Science in Architectural Design and a PhD in Urbanism and fifteen years working on social, spatial, and environmental justice, particularly in the degradation of the contemporary city through the study of integration spaces and boundary conditions. His website address is www.capraribeiro.com.