From Disaster Risk Construction to Disaster Risk Reduction: Exploring the Agency of Urban Land-Use Planning in Chile

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how the existing urban land-use regulatory framework and its associated planning practices in Chile have contributed to disaster risk construction in urban areas. It uses Actor Network Theory as an analytical framework, and in-depth interviews and focus groups to analyse the existing urban land-use regulatory framework and its innovation process. Drawing on the knowledges and perception of practitioners, and the revision of a case study, the paper unpacks the agency of the existing urban land-use regulatory framework in enhancing disaster risk, and how its rigidity and the obstacles for its modification, prevents the advance towards disaster risk reduction.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban land-use
• regulatory framework
• disaster risk reduction
• Actor Network Theory

Acknowledgements

This material is based on work supported by the research Project Enlace-Fondecyt “Factores subyacentes de la construcción del riesgo y dominios de cambio para el incremento de la resiliencia en asentamientos humanos de la Región de Los Lagos”, of the Universidad de Chile. We thank Practitioners and Planning Experts, and the people of Alerce who participated in the Focus Group, for their significant contribution to the research. We also thank the reviewers for their insightful suggestions to improve the first version of the manuscript. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, express or implied, of the Government of Chile.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The LGUC defines different statutory land-use plans regarding the different spatial and administrative scales of application, both at inter-municipal and local-municipal levels. It is important to highlight that Inter-municipal land-use plans have a higher hierarchy, and local-municipal plans need to follow their guidelines.