Dinámicas del crecimiento y transformación del paisaje urbano de la parroquia El Batán de Cuenca a partir de 1980

Abstract

Normally, when there is a study about urban expansion in Cuenca, this tends to be about the totality of the city or about the rurality as you can see in the “Planes de Ordenamiento Territorial (PDOT)”. So, under these circumstances this kind of works doesn’t consider the urban parishes as units that deserve to be studied, as these are seen as a total and they talk about the “urban zone” or “the urban area”. Because of this and the low amount of studies about this topic, there is not a high level of knowledge that can be useful to know about the growth y development of the city. Under this reason, this work will be made as a way to understand the causes of the urban growth to El Batán, starting from certain points of interest that led to a change of the dynamics that rule the city, as the creation of the Feria Libre or “Centro Comercial (C.C) El Arenal”, also from the most recent construction of the C.C “El Batán”, and some streets and avenues that serve as connections to the parish such as Av. de las Américas and Av. Ordóñez Lasso; thus, in this study we also mention the transformation in the landscape of El Batán as a result of the expansion of Cuenca to this area. In order to identify those changes, we will compare some city blueprints and use some satellite photographs to contrast them. Also, we will use de DELPHI method to obtain information from experts and from these parish inhabitants. Also, this investigation was intended to answer the question: which social and economic factors influenced in the growth, landscape change, and expansion to (and into) the urban parish El Batán since the decade of 1980? while trying to describe and analyze the different dynamics of growth and landscape change in said parish