466
A. M. Osorio Guzmán et al.
today are popular, as well as in the kind of residents: before families, today mainly
students and seniors (Ultramari et al. 2014).
The re-qualification of historic centers implies a complex process of change. New
uses, services and buildings need upgrading infrastructures by adapting existing
systems or building new ones. This re-qualification is sometimes a result of urban
renewal policies that can generate gentrification: expulsion of the traditional inhabitants because of the economic dynamics, in which the price of space rises due to
commercial purposes, service provision and high-income housing; but can also be
an opportunity for an approach towards sustainability.
Sustainability can be understood as living with equity within the limits of nature
and requires a reduction of aggregate economic transfer (Wackernagel and Rees
2001), in the understanding that the economic system is part of the anthropic system,
and this is immersed in the biosphere (Martínez-Alier 2001). On the other hand,
sustainability has to do with the capacity of the territory to physically support human
activities (Leal del Castillo 2004), historically human tragedies as a result of environmental and socio-environmental phenomena (droughts, floods, avalanches, cyclones,
earthquakes, etc.) were the origin of studies about the environment (Osorio Guzmán
2011). We also recognize the importance of the contributions of urban ecology as a
basis for analysis and proposals about sustainability of urban spaces, specifically the
study of urban metabolism to understand the transformation of matter and energy in
the city, in search of low entropy (Bettini 1998).
On the other hand, according to Klein (2018), from a cultural perspective, sustainability is recognized as a moral commitment to the collective environment expressed
in the feelings of responsibility of the inhabitants with the landscape, first regarding structures and space, and secondly, regarding the constant transformation of
its dynamic nature. In this case, it is understood that sustainability implies transformations towards social justice and ecological stability, based on a post-modern
re-humanizing discourse, appropriated by the different fields of knowledge, which
need institutionalization, as well as a strong citizenship (Osorio Guzmán 2011).
In the quest for sustainability in urban spaces from a cultural perspective, the
challenge is to find a balance between transformations inherent to social evolution,
and permanencies necessary for the continuities that give meaning to the experience,
connecting it to the history (Klein 2018).
From the environmental perspective of sustainability, it is evident that large cities
based on the current economic system generate air and water pollution, noise, heat
islands and difficult access to healthy food (Camargo Ponce de León 2005). We
occupy spaces with hydrological and geological systems that become threats to constructions and people. Access to vital resources as well as risk management in urban
spaces have multi-scalar implications from the building scale to the neighborhood,
the city, the metropolis and the planet scales.
Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015) which should guide national policies,
include inter-related and multi-scale issues. Objective No. 11 “Sustainable Cities and
Communities” (UN 2015) focuses on the specific problems related to urban systems:
adequate, safe and affordable housing; safe, accessible, sustainable transport; inclusive and sustainable urbanization; participatory planning and management; safeguard
A. M. Osorio Guzmán et al.
today are popular, as well as in the kind of residents: before families, today mainly
students and seniors (Ultramari et al. 2014).
The re-qualification of historic centers implies a complex process of change. New
uses, services and buildings need upgrading infrastructures by adapting existing
systems or building new ones. This re-qualification is sometimes a result of urban
renewal policies that can generate gentrification: expulsion of the traditional inhabitants because of the economic dynamics, in which the price of space rises due to
commercial purposes, service provision and high-income housing; but can also be
an opportunity for an approach towards sustainability.
Sustainability can be understood as living with equity within the limits of nature
and requires a reduction of aggregate economic transfer (Wackernagel and Rees
2001), in the understanding that the economic system is part of the anthropic system,
and this is immersed in the biosphere (Martínez-Alier 2001). On the other hand,
sustainability has to do with the capacity of the territory to physically support human
activities (Leal del Castillo 2004), historically human tragedies as a result of environmental and socio-environmental phenomena (droughts, floods, avalanches, cyclones,
earthquakes, etc.) were the origin of studies about the environment (Osorio Guzmán
2011). We also recognize the importance of the contributions of urban ecology as a
basis for analysis and proposals about sustainability of urban spaces, specifically the
study of urban metabolism to understand the transformation of matter and energy in
the city, in search of low entropy (Bettini 1998).
On the other hand, according to Klein (2018), from a cultural perspective, sustainability is recognized as a moral commitment to the collective environment expressed
in the feelings of responsibility of the inhabitants with the landscape, first regarding structures and space, and secondly, regarding the constant transformation of
its dynamic nature. In this case, it is understood that sustainability implies transformations towards social justice and ecological stability, based on a post-modern
re-humanizing discourse, appropriated by the different fields of knowledge, which
need institutionalization, as well as a strong citizenship (Osorio Guzmán 2011).
In the quest for sustainability in urban spaces from a cultural perspective, the
challenge is to find a balance between transformations inherent to social evolution,
and permanencies necessary for the continuities that give meaning to the experience,
connecting it to the history (Klein 2018).
From the environmental perspective of sustainability, it is evident that large cities
based on the current economic system generate air and water pollution, noise, heat
islands and difficult access to healthy food (Camargo Ponce de León 2005). We
occupy spaces with hydrological and geological systems that become threats to constructions and people. Access to vital resources as well as risk management in urban
spaces have multi-scalar implications from the building scale to the neighborhood,
the city, the metropolis and the planet scales.
Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015) which should guide national policies,
include inter-related and multi-scale issues. Objective No. 11 “Sustainable Cities and
Communities” (UN 2015) focuses on the specific problems related to urban systems:
adequate, safe and affordable housing; safe, accessible, sustainable transport; inclusive and sustainable urbanization; participatory planning and management; safeguard