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Megacities in Latin America: Role and Challenges

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Risk Habitat Megacity

Abstract

This chapter discusses the primary issues and challenges of urban sustainability that have come to light in six Latin American metropolises. It identifies leading urbanization trends in Latin America and their relevance to the selected city regions. Furthermore, it presents stylized facts from each city under review and summarizes the work of the recently developed Regional Panorama Latina America – Megacities and Sustainability, which evaluates urban risks along sustainability criteria.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The corresponding percentage in East Asia is 40 per cent; in Western Europe 72%; in North Africa 58% (UN Habitat 2009, pp. 231–232).

  2. 2.

    Located to the north of Mexico City, this region includes parts of the Guanajuato, Jalisco, Querétaro and Michoacán states and has recently been particularly successful in attracting economic activities.

  3. 3.

    This chapter presents summaries on each of the six megacities as presented in the Regional Panorama: Latin America - Megacities and sustainability, based on the work of the experts involved and the literature quoted in the Panorama (Jordán et al. 2010).

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the editor for comments on a previous version of this paper and to Katherine Phelan for her revision of this version.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ECLAC/CEPAL, Av. Dag Hammarskjöld, 3477, Vitacura/Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Ricardo Jordán, Johannes Rehner & Joseluis Samaniego

Authors
  1. Ricardo Jordán
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  2. Johannes Rehner
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  3. Joseluis Samaniego
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ricardo Jordán .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Institute of Transport Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Rutherfordstr. 2, Berlin, 12489, Germany

    Dirk Heinrichs

  2. Research - UFZ, Department of Urban and, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental, Permoserstraße 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany

    Kerstin Krellenberg

  3. Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Economics, Helmholtz Centre for, Permoserstr. 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany

    Bernd Hansjürgens

  4. Universidad de Chile, Blanco Encalada 2002, Santiago, Chile

    Francisco Martínez

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Jordán, R., Rehner, J., Samaniego, J. (2012). Megacities in Latin America: Role and Challenges. In: Heinrichs, D., Krellenberg, K., Hansjürgens, B., Martínez, F. (eds) Risk Habitat Megacity. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11544-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11544-8_2

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