- The Impact of Spatial Planning and Habitability in Latin-American Medium-Sized Cities on Social Inclusive Development    110 kb by    Luengo de Arreaza, María Helena | mhlda@yahoo.es    Short Outline The paper discusses the following: Sustainable development of medium-size cities; Human scale development; Spatial planning and social inclusive development. Abstract The challenge for Latin-American developing countries to meet the basic needs of its population has been constantly threatened by unstable economies and political systems of central tendency. Have been imposed development models with economic and industrial emphasis that have rejected the human development and the knowledge and practices of traditional societies. This process coupled with population growth that is beyond the structures that support it has resulted in a profound environmental, economic and social crisis, in which much of the population has been segregated and without access to basic needs. Against this backdrop, this work is intended to create a vision of spatial planning and habitability oriented to a socially inclusive development. The medium-sized cities, fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, concentrate most of the world's population and represent a potential scenario for the generation of sustainable development strategies. Scale features of these cities favor mediation with the territory, establishing functional relationships between urban systems, facilitate social cohesion and maintain traces of the persistence of traditional management methods of the territory. These characteristics are favorable for review of spatial planning models of post-industrial societies based on open cycles that have affected both the environment and territorial and to formulate strategic plans effectively to achieve a more sustainable development. Through a spatial planning that meets the basic needs is possible to climb to different levels of needs and support human development and life quality. Keywords a vision of spatial planning and habitability oriented to a socially inclusive development Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper