Paula Villagra

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Universidad Austral de Chile

This study analyzes the perception of biophilic values in the Rocuant-Andalién wetland, located in the Concepción Metropolitan Area, Chile, and examines how these perceptions vary according to neighborhood typologies. The main objective is to understand how different urban and sociodemographic characteristics influence the valuation of this natural...

As climate change intensifies coastal hazards globally, understanding and quantifying community vulnerability is crucial for effective adaptation strategies. This study examines the application of indicators in planning adaptive capacity strategies to reduce community vulnerability to tsunami hazards (THs). Using a case study approach in Mehuin, a...

El proyecto aborda la creciente preocupación por los incendios forestales en Chile, cuya magnitud y frecuencia han aumentado. El enfoque gubernamental se ha centrado en fortalecer la gestión de incendios, pero ha excluido la perspectiva de las comunidades y el conocimiento local. La investigación consta de dos etapas. En la primera (2019-2020), se...

Wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services; however, little is known about their perception value or use for improving urban planning and wetland management. This study explores the perception values towards the Los Batros Wetland in Chile, by inhabitants from different neighborhood typologies. A sample of 457 responses evaluated the wetla...

Chilean coastal cities grow and expand rapidly due to the development of real estate projects that replace natural systems with urbanized land. This change probably decreases post-disaster adaptation, and negatively affects the ecological dimension of resilience. The objective is to characterize the resilience capacity of Chilean cities exposed to...

Tras un incremento de las amenazas a nivel global, surge la necesidad de buscar formas efectivas de prevenir, prepararse y adaptarse ante sus efectos, lo cual es posible mediante el aumento de la resiliencia comunitaria. En Chile, la investigación en esta disciplina se ha incrementado luego del terremoto y tsunami de 2010, sin mayor profundización...

The Chilean territory has been affected by various natural hazards, which have been exacerbated by current land use practices resulting into serious consequences for the affected communities. In this research, a model was developed that allows visualizing the behavior of the Mehuin system (Los Ríos Region, Chile) and identifying the variables that...

By definition, a smart city must improve its readiness for extreme events in order to confront the growing unpredictability of natural disasters. Doing this implies planning for resilience. That is, to enhance our capacity to cope, mitigate, adapt, and rebuild human settlements after a catastrophic event. Although scholars have argued that biodiver...

Resilience thinking is critical for improving disaster preparedness, response, and adaptation. While there are several strategies focused on assessing resilience capacity in human communities, there are few strategies focused on fostering resilience thinking. Game-based learning is an active and immersive teaching strategy that can foster complex s...

Wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services; however, little is known about their value or use for improving urban planning and wetland management. This study explores values towards Los Batros Wetland in Chile, by inhabitants from different neighborhood typologies. A sample of 379 households evaluated the wetland by applying Kellert’s framework...

Evacuation from tsunami hazards is a complex problem that requires a transdisciplinary approach, i.e., several topics must be interrelated (including the perspective of the population) to better understand the evacuation process. One of these involves the psychological response of people to the configuration and location of evacuation sites. This p...

We analyzed the extent the regulatory framework of coastal towns in southern Chile put emphasis in generating a governance or governability approach that is flexible and redundant in order to assure community resilience. We used a case study approach, and content and spatial analyses of emergency and planning instruments to obtain semantic networks...

Almost all the studies about place attachment in environmental risk contexts only consider the role of place attachment to home or local area. However, especially when it comes to risks requiring evacuation from home and local area, it is likely that place attachment to evacuation sites, if any, becomes relevant too. The present studies intend to u...

Urban planning should be a key instrument to reduce the disastrous effects of a tsunami and to enhance community resilience. This study explores to what extent urban planning has addressed resilience to tsunami in four coastal settlements in the south pacific coast of Chile, specifically in reaction to three tsunamis (Valdivia tsunami 1960, Cobquec...

This study aimed to further our understanding of a characteristic of Community Resilience known as Disaster Governance. Three attributes of Disaster Governance—redundancy, diversity, and overlap—were studied in four coastal towns in southern Chile that are at risk of tsunamis. Overall, we explored how different spatial structures of human settlemen...

Tsunamic events are a frequent hazard to coastal towns. Despite this, the extent to which resilience models can be applied to coastal towns as well as the aspects that should be considered when doing so have not been fully evaluated. There is little information regarding the specific indicators that allow cities to better cope and adapt to the impa...

A large earthquake and tsunami took place in February 2010, affecting a significant part of the Chilean coast (Maule earthquake, Mw of 8.8). Dichato (37∘ S), a small town located on Coliumo Bay, was one of the most devastated coastal areas and is currently under reconstruction. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the risk factor...

Facing natural disasters is a priority challenge for cities, exacerbated by increases in urban population and climate change. Improving the resilience of cities is a critical need for the international community and especially for territories exposed to multiple risks, such as Chile. Although disasters are always tragic, the recovery and reconstruc...

A large earthquake and tsunami took place in February 2010, affecting a significant part of the Chilean coast (Maule earthquake (Mw = 8.8). Dichato (37° S), a small town located on Coliumo Bay, was one of the most devastated coastal places and is currently under reconstruction. Therefore, the risk factors which explain the disaster at that time as...

Understanding how to accommodate the ‘resilience thinking’ approach in the planning of cities is critical for the adaptation of urban environments to extreme natural events. From both a conceptual and applied perspective, this study explored whether or not the resilience thinking approach has been addressed in urban planning; Mehuín, Chile, was use...

It is critical to understand how to accommodate the 'resilience thinking' approach in city planning, in order for urban environments to adapt to extreme natural events. This study explored from both a conceptual and applied perspective, whether or not the resilience thinking approach has been adressed in urban plan-ning, using Mehuin, Chile, as a c...

Understanding landscape attributes, uses and their restorative potential is crucial in recovery and management interventions in disaster-prone environments. However, little is known about the role of key landscape features and how they work as an agent of recovery in the event of an earthquake. This study examined the relationship between landscape...

The characteristics of landscape have a powerful effect on people and affect the way individuals use these features to restore its emotional state within the context of extreme situations. The latter becomes relevant in the case of Chilean cities exposed to natural disturbances that modify the landscape. The perception study that explores the urban...

The characteristics of landscape have a powerful effect on people and affect the way individuals use these features to restore its emotional state within the context of extreme situations. The latter becomes relevant in the case of Chilean cities exposed to natural disturbances that modify the landscape. The perception study that explores the urban...

To embrace a global “Earth Stewardship”, researchers associated with the Chilean Long Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER-Chile) network, highlighted the urgent need to integrate the variety of ecosystems and cultures, and overcome the bias of information centered in Northern Hemisphere. However this initiative doesn’t include the Chilean territo...

Open-space networks in cities in disaster-prone environments can be designed to facilitate recovery. This study explores residents’ perceptions of urban wetlands in earthquake-prone Concepcio´n, Chile. Two scenarios were posed, one representing everyday life and a second representing life after an earthquake, in which wetlands were perceived in ter...

In human environments subjected to natural hazards, places such as plazas, parks and free areas can, after a catastrophe, be places for refuge which can satisfy survival needs and support adaptation. The relationships of such an open space system and the urban form, are explored in this study by focussing on the spatial context of two Chilean citie...

The relationship between cities and biodiversity is extremely complex in Latin America. The region is simultaneously the world’s most urbanized, has some of the world’s largest social and economic inequities, and hosts some of the world’s most biodiversity-rich ecosystems, including several biodiversity hotspots. As cities in Latin America are expe...

La capacidad de un sistema de adaptarse a un ambiente luego de una gran perturbación como un terremoto, sin perder su estructura ni características propias, se defi ne como resiliencia. En el contexto de una ciudad, el paisaje urbano, o el conjunto de espacios abiertos como calles, plazas y parques, entre otros, contribuye a la resiliencia del sist...

REFLECTION After the 2011 eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex (PCC) in southern Chile, an exhibition was prepared to show to the general public the findings of academic expeditions in the area affected. This paper discusses the objectives and content of this expedition, as well as the interpretation tools used to prepare it. A vo...

Resultados de un estudio de percepción visual de paisajes sometidos a regímenes de quemas controladas en el sudeste australiano, sugieren como mejorar políticas de manejo del fuego al considerar la dimensión estética del paisaje. Datos de preferencia y similitud entre paisajes se recolectaron durante una serie de entrevistas (N = 40) utilizando mét...

New design approaches can be observed in an increasing number of botanical gardens due to a desire to improve the effectiveness of environmental interpretation. This paper presents a review of these recent trends in the display of plants based on a search of botanical gardens around the world and on both theory and previous research findings that h...

Tesis (Lic. en Arquitectura y Arquitecto)--Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2002. Incluye bibliografía.