Francisco De la Barrera

University of Concepción · Centro de Ciencias Ambientales EULA - Chile

Climate change and unsustainable land-use practices are causing megafires in South America. Here we call for rigorous scientific coordination and global cooperation to claim back landscape planning, mitigate fire risk and foster resilience in the region. A remarkable surge in the occurrence and severity of megafires has been observed around the wor...

Among Mediterranean regions, the South-Central Zone of Chile (SCZCh) portrays a landscape where wildfires constantly and historically occur, many times damaging ecosystems, lives and livelihoods. Since 2010, this zone has entered a period of unprecedented drought that has contributed to wildfire rising trends. Wildfire occurrence and intensity in t...

Freshwater availability has decreased alarmingly worldwide, with agriculture playing a vital role in this trend. The assessment of the agricultural water footprint (WFagricultural) and virtual water flows (VWF) is fundamental not only in local water resources management and protection, but also in our understanding of the synergies between local wa...

Hillside systems are key centers of ecological and cultural diversity, providing humanity with goods (e.g., food) and vital services (e.g., prevention of landslides) and sustaining 25% of terrestrial biodiversity. However, historical land use practices over these landscapes have contributed to their degradation. In this work, the hillside systems (...

Monitoring urban green space (UGS) indicators is key to assessing progress against the UNs sustainable development goals (SDGs). Within these indicators, measuring the provision of UGS as well as its accessibility is considered a major objective. However, neither the relationship between the two indicators, nor differences related to different type...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), commit 193 countries to improving environmental, social and economic indicators through their performance on 169 targets by 2030 in order to achieve compliance with the Paris Agreement. However, development dynamics in relation to the SDGs change over time and with this, countries do not identify the strengt...

Significance Statement The increase in the world population has generated high pressures on the different ecosystems, mainly due to the expansion of urban areas and productive activities such as agriculture. Coastal wetlands are among the most affected ecosystems, which due to their geographical location are highly fragile and susceptible to change...

Wildfire causes multiple problems for people living in cities. One of them is the deterioration of air quality as a result of wildfire smoke. This smoke can consequently have effects on human health. The present study aims to characterize the relationship between the occurrence of wildfires in central Chile and the effects on children’s respiratory...

(1) Background: Megafires have affected several regions in the world (e.g., Australia, California), including, in 2017, the central and south-central zones of Chile. These areas represent real laboratories to monitor the impacts on the sustainability of landscapes and their recovery after fires. The present research examines the modification of dyn...

Chile es uno de los países con mayor nivel de urbanización de América Latina, lo que ha generado una serie de transformaciones territoriales. Estas, sumadas a una alta vulnerabilidad climática, acentúan las desigualdades socioambientales, segregación y diversas formas de exclusión social. En el presente capítulo, se discute cómo los procesos de des...

Extreme temperatures mirror global climate patterns. The physical characteristics of the landscapes of cities and the activities of their citizens have decisive consequences on urban climates. Both are indeed manageable through urban planning, and especially with the potential of greening urban landscapes. This chapter analyses the capacity of urba...

Public urban green spaces provide people with many benefits. Understanding the relationship between public urban green spaces’ characteristics and human well-being components may assist in future planning and design of these spaces. This study performed a systematic bibliographic review to analyse the relationships between green spaces' specific ch...

Extreme fire episodes, also known as megafires, often refer to wildfires that cause catastrophic damage in terms of human life, economic loss, or both. These megafires change the land cover, resulting in the loss of the ecosystem services provided by the land cover before the mega-fires occurred. This loss is even more critical when fires occur nea...

Las ciudades latinoamericanas están sujetas a fuertes procesos de expansión asociados a un permanente requerimiento de infraestructura vial y a un mayor consumo de energía. Esta tendencia está ligada a un crecimiento de poca densidad y disperso hacia las periferias que se convierten, en su mayoría, en sitios residenciales, dejando en los centros ur...

Esta compilación reúne los resúmenes (en español) de los trabajos publicados, hasta marzo 2020, en que he participado en diferentes roles, tanto como autor principal, como mediante contribuciones al trabajo de otros y otras colegas. Algunos están es español y otros en español. El propósito de integrarlos en esta compilación es facilitar el acceso...

La geografía de la salud representa una oportunidad para comprender fenómenos espaciales en su relación con la enfermedad, su vigilancia, monitoreo y predicción. Al respecto, la influenza y el virus sincicial son dos enfermedades respiratorias que todos los inviernos afectan a las ciudades chilenas. En este trabajo, se realiza una incorporación de...

En el marco de la implementación de la Estrategia Nacional de Cambio Climático y Recursos Vegetacionales (ENCCRV), la Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF), y en particular, sus Gerencias de Desarrollo y Fomento Forestal, de Fiscalización y Evaluación Ambiental, de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas y de Protección contra Incendios Forestales han licitado...

The development and application of urban sustainability indicators has gained momentum in recent years, especially since the generation of specific urban indicators for the Agenda 2030. Urban sustainability is a broad concept involving many dimensions, therefore the generation of a short, but comprehensive list of indicators is a significant challe...

Green infrastructure suggests an interconnected network of natural zones that help to the preservation of biodiversity and provision of ecosystem services. Since 2018, the Maule Region has a Green Infrastructure plan designed with data of spatial resolution of 30 meters (Landsat). The Longitudinal Valley zone of the region does not have natural are...

Wildfires are gaining importance in the Mediterranean regions owing to climate change and landscape changes due to the increasing closeness between urban areas and forests prone to wildfires. We analysed the dry season wildfire occurrences in the Mediterranean region of Central Chile (32°S-39°30' S) between 2000 and 2017, using satellite images to...

The study of ecosystem services in Latin America has increased exponentially in the last 10 years. During this period, different methodologies have been applied for the identification and valuation of ecosystem services, following experiences designed for developed countries, sometimes ignoring the social and environmental context of each territory...

Los avances en metas de desarrollo urbano pueden medir-se a través de sistemas de indicadores. En Chile, el Consejo Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano (CNDU) ha propuesto un set de indicadores para monitorear los avances en las metas propuestas por la Política Nacional de Desarrollo Urbano e incorpora aspectos asociados a áreas verdes urbanas (AVU), los...

Santiago de Chile presenta problemas de dotación y accesibilidad a áreas verdes. El contar con grandes parques urbanos homogéneamente distribuidos ha sido objeto de esfuerzos, no obstante, los nuevos parques son cada vez más pequeños. El presente trabajo busca 1- argumentar la oportunidad que ofrecen los cerros isla de Santiago para resolver inequi...

The impact of urbanization on groundwater is not simple to understand, as it depends on a variety of factors such as climate, hydrogeology, water management practices, and infrastructure. In semiarid landscapes, the urbanization processes can involve high water consumptions and irrigation increases, which in turn may contribute to groundwater recha...

Understanding water consumption is crucial for sustainable management of water resources. Under climate change scenarios that project highly variable water availability, the need for public policies that assure efficiency and equity in water resources is increasing. This work analyzes the case of the Cachapoal River agricultural basin (34°S 71°W),...

Las actividades humanas tienen efectos en el medio ambiente y en la capacidad de los ecosistemas para proporcionar servicios ecosistémicos. En esta investigación se evalúan y mapean los servicios ecosistémicos de una microcuenca periurbana de Querétaro, con el fin de generar un panorama de la oferta potencial de servicios ecosistémicos y su relació...

In emergent economies, severe social inequalities can produce high exposure to deprived environmental conditions, affecting people's wellbeing. Urban parks can greatly help to increase the urban environmental quality by providing fundamental ecosystem services, such as local climate regulation, recreation and sense of place. Urban parks are, theref...

Urbanisation is a complex spatiotemporal process taking place across landscapes even in areas far beyond urban cores; therefore, directly and indirectly affecting the functions, processes and services of ecosystems. Urbanisation is a difficult process to monitor, quantify and plan. Landscape areas located outside of urban cores are heavily affected...

Santiago, the capital and biggest city of Chile, has experienced a rapid urban growth during the last decades. This has included a large increase in population, proliferation of suburbs, and the loss and degradation of thousands of hectares of natural and semi-natural areas, whose natural elements may play a key role for the city’s sustainability....

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 service...

Abstract Which ecosystem services are addressed? Urban ecosystem services: cooling effects of shading plants, climate mitigation, regulating run-off, improving air quality, carbon sequestration, and various cultural services such as recreation and sense of place, aesthetics. What is the research question addressed? How does the socio-spatial differ...

Like most South American cities, Santiago de Chile was founded following the Laws of Indies. Its grid system was laid out on a fertile segment of the Maipo valley, at the foot of an isolated hill between the Mapocho River and one of its branches. There are controversies regarding whether the definition of its main features was defined by its Spania...

Urban expansion in Latin-American cities is faster than urban planning. In order to implement sustainable planning the capacity of peri-urban areas to provide ecosystem services must be evaluated in the context of competing urbanization and conservation pressures. In this study we analyzed the effect of urban expansion on peri-urban vegetation of t...

Las ciudades dependen de servicios ecosistémicos generados por áreas naturales y semi-naturales que se encuentran dentro y fuera de los límites urbanos, por lo que la implementación de estrategias de planificación que promuevan la conservación de la biodiversidad urbana es una tarea fundamental para asegurar la provisión de estos servicios. En este...

This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities. Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...

This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities. Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...

In January 2017, hundreds of fires in Mediterranean Chile burnt more than 5000 km2, an area nearly 14 times the 40-year mean. We contextualize these fires in terms of estimates of global fire intensity using MODIS satellite record, and provide an overview of the climatic factors and recent changes in land use that led to the active fire season and...

This study aims at improving the built types classification of the LCZ method, considering the climate behaviour of real urban textures of three reference cities. Analyses performed with the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) model for Rome (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and Santiago (Chile) showed a significant variability of UHI intensity in “compact mid-...

Wildfires are one of the main processes that currently shape Mediterranean ecosystems. The analysis of wildfire risk combined with historical records allows for a greater understanding of trends and their relation to territorial variables that are favourable to future events. Using GIS analysis, we assess wildfire risk in La Campana – Peñuelas Bios...

This work focus on the configuration of urban green infrastructure - and thus residential access to those ecosystem services that green infrastructure can provide. Their area of research is the growing Latin American urban metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile. Here, they consider targeted spatial analysis on multiple scales. By identifying large...

Este documento corresponde al Informe Final de la consultoría “IDENTIFICACIÓN DE ECOSISTEMAS CONTINENTALES Y LOS SERVICIOS ECOSISTÉMICOS QUE ESTOS PROVEEN” elaborado por Cienciambiental Consultores S.A. por encargo del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente de Chile. El objetivo de este trabajo fue elaborar una clasificación de ecosistemas continentales e i...

Biosphere Reserves (BR) as regional sustainability models focused on conservation, sustainable development and logistical support functions are essential for the natural support of local and regional territories. This paper analyses the landscape structure of a BR containing officially protected natural areas, productive lands and peri-urban areas....

During the summer of 2017, several megafires in South-Central Chile burned down forest plantations, native forests, shrublands and human settlements. National authorities identified the relevant effects of the wildfires on infrastructure and ecosystems. However, other indirect effects such as the risk of flooding or, increased air pollution were no...

By the mid-twenty-first century, it is expected that over 65% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The shift will entail the conversion of natural areas into cities. The inclusion of these natural areas poses new challenges for spatial planning that can be addressed in a new approach to spatial planning that incorporates features of...

La urbanización de paisajes naturales y seminaturales genera consecuencias en ciudades latinoamericanas de tamaño medio. En Chile, el crecimiento urbano y el desarrollo de actividades forestales han afectado la funcionalidad y biodiversidad del paisaje. El Área Metropolitana de Concepción (en adelante AMC) es representativa de la combinación de amb...

Mankind's quest for well-being results in continuous pressure to transform landscapes, with said transformation driven by land use changes, urbanization, production activity, and protective measures in addition to climate variability and other environmental drivers. The relationship between anthropogenic landscape changes and the provision of ecosy...

XLS file containing the homologation of the classes, policies and regulations with effect on landscapes. (XLSX)

XLS file containing the main calculations of the supply of ecosystem services. (XLSX)

El 15 de enero de 2016 un conjunto de estudiantes, profesionales y académicos fundaron la Asociación Chilena de Ecología de Paisaje la cual representa el capítulo chileno de la International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE Chile), sociedad de alcance mundial con más de dos mil científicos. La ecología del paisaje es concebida como una cienc...

Cities in Latin America expose high rates of urbanization and poorly controlled processes of creation of new urban peripheries. In this study we evaluated the changes in vegetation cover as a proxy of the success of urban planning in the creation or conservation of elements able to provide ecosystem services to citizens and therefore strengthening...

The well-being of people living in cities is strongly dependent on the existence of urban vegetation because of the ecosystem services or benefits it provides. This is why governments develop plans to create green spaces, plant trees, promote the maintenance of vegetation in private spaces and also monitor their status over time. In Latin America,...

El principal objetivo de esta investigación es proponer una nueva aproximación para la planificación urbana de Santiago basada en el concepto de planificación ecológica. Esta aproximación contribuye a la planificación territorial mediante el diagnóstico y reconocimiento explícito del rol fundamental que los elementos ecológicos juegan en las dinámi...

Durante el verano del 2017 se presenciaron en la zona centro-sur de Chile los mayores incendios registrados en la historia del país (Sarricolea & Úbeda 2016). De acuerdo a la información entregada en reportes anteriores, 555.381 ha fueron afectadas por los incendios entre las regiones de Valparaíso y el Bío-Bío (De la Barrera & Ruiz 2017 y De la Ba...

Urban green spaces are commons that include a wide variety of vegetated public spaces. They provide diverse benefits such as air quality improvement, climate regulation and recreation. Because of these benefits several governments of Latin American cities have generated policies designed to develop new green spaces. In this research, I explore how...

During the Austral Summer of 2017 South-Central Chile was affected by several wildfires. The wildfires burned an area of about 530.000 hectares, from which 225.000 ha. were forest plantations and 61.000 ha. were native forests (De la Barrera & Ruiz, 2017). A wildfire can change the infiltration properties of soils, the vegetation layers and topogra...

Abstract: By the mid-twenty first century, it is expected that over 65% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The process of this shift will entail the integration of natural areas into cities. This incorporation poses new challenges for land planning such as: how to include ecosystem services, how to fold nature back into artificial...

La historia de la planificación urbana se escribe mediante el registro de diversas iniciativas realizadas a lo largo de la historia de una ciudad. Estas iniciativas incluyen planes de uso del suelo, planes de renovación urbana, proyectos de infraestructura y diversas acciones del Estado, con mayor o menor participación de la sociedad civil según el...

El verano de 2017 dejó en la zona centro-sur de Chile un registro de los grandes incendios registrados en la historia del país. Cuatro incendios superaron las 40.000 ha y 7 las 10.000 ha. Las estadísticas oficiales señalan que las plantaciones forestales fueron las más afectadas por incendios, secundadas del bosque nativo y de matorrales y praderas...

La conservación de la biodiversidad se ha convertido en un asunto cada vez más importante, especialmente en entornos altamente dinámicos como los metropolitanos. En este sentido, una mejor comprensión de la contribución de las áreas naturales al bienestar de los habitantes urbanos y peri-urbanos se hace pertinente, principalmente al reconocer las t...

Este documento es parte de un estudio independiente y ad-honorem, coordinado desde IALE-Chile, la sociedad científica chilena de ecología del paisaje que agrupa investigadores de distintas instituciones. En esta primera entrega se analiza la extensión de las áreas incendiadas en la zona centro-sur de Chile, delimitada para estos efectos por las reg...

Urban green spaces are essential for the well-being of citizens. We developed a mixed method approach by (1) exploiting RS data to estimate amount and distribution of vegetation cover and (2) conducting a social survey to add in-depth knowledge on accessibility and perception of green spaces. The study area are three municipalities of Santiago de C...

Green spaces are considered as indicators of both quality of life and urban sustainability. In Latin America, some analyses have been made regarding the provision and use of urban green spaces, but there are few studies that analyze how peoples' perceptions influence the use of these areas. The article analyses factors such as preferences for green...