Administrative and planning regions: comparative analysis of urban primacies in the Central Region - RAPE and Pacifico - RAP

Abstract

Territorial planning implies the examination of variables such as land use, land occupation patterns and the impacts of institutional decision making on the population’s living conditions. Due to Colombia’s territorial heterogeneity, it is rather difficult to implement territorial “blueprint” models throughout the country in which there is a clear primacy of urban centers. This paper draws on urban primacy indicators, particularly focused on two Administrative Planning Region cases: “Central Region – RAPE (CR-RAPE)” and “Pacific Region – RAP (PR-RAP)”. Additionally, based on official information provided by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), the paper analyzes ways for RAP’s framework implementation and impact evaluation by assessing population, economics and governmental variables. By comparing CR-RAPE and PR-RAP, the analysis allowed to identify territorial unbalances particularly triggered by urban macrocephaly phenomenon in Bogotá and Cali, constant trends in land occupation and non-significant variations in primacy indicators in the rest of the cities encompassing each analyzed RAP. Finally, the study allowed to recognize the territorial diversity of each RAP, which in one hand exacerbates the aforementioned unbalances, but on the other hand, raise awareness about the opportunity for designing territorial planning tools and incentives aiming at bridging gaps among the territories.

Keywords:
Counter urbanization; Regional imbalance; Urban indicators; Urban macrocephaly; Territory management