Ecotonal Situations and Ecosystem Services: Environmental Health in the Barranca del Río Grande de Santiago. Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Mexico

Abstract

This article shows the insufficiency of current local urban planning to face health problems in the periphery of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area where social, environmental and urban problems converge. Through the definition and delimitation of ecotonal situations and the perception of the inhabitants about their environment, conflicts and opportunities offered by natural, peri-urban and intra-urban ecosystems are detected to project new possible scenarios.

The objective is to propose urban ecotones as areas for post-planning, overcoming the dominant polygonization, conserving nature and integrating its benefits. Using cartographic and ethnographic diagnostics, this study focuses on analyzing these situations from two perspectives: the review of comprehensive community health (public services) and ecosystem services. The results demonstrate this double social and environmental marginalization, the diluted perception of ecosystem services as solutions and citizen actions as potential seeds of change. Finally, strategies are proposed that seek to move from conflict to regeneration, recovering comprehensive health through social and environmental initiatives.

Keywords:
Urban ecotones; Territorial planning; Informal peripheries; Citizen initiatives; Regenerative design