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Informal Green Infrastructure (IGI) and the Pursuit of Climate Responsive Environments in Quito City

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Governance of Climate Responsive Cities

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Abstract

The loss of green landscape to informal settlements is a contributor to the pace of climate change in fast-growing Latin American cities. Yet, people who reside in informal settlements often rely on green arrangements to facilitate everyday life, for which preservation is often embedded in ordinary practices. This study explores green infrastructure (GI) in informal settlements and discusses prominent differences from those of the core city, for which the concept of informal green infrastructure (IGI) is adopted. Using Quito as a case study, the chapter explores how socio-spatial constraints blend with the pursuit of agency, surrounding green landscapes, and city networks to shape IGIs as infrastructures of everyday life. Learning from practices that sustain IGIs in place yields implications for climate change adaptation. The study identifies community allotments, footpaths, and pitches as the prevalent kinds of IGIs. Community allotments engender social networks of reciprocal exchange for women, which shapes its governance. Footpaths provide connectivity to the city’s mobility infrastructures. Pitches enable leisure, income, and collective agency toward improved informal settlements. IGIs constitute green spaces developed, governed, and maintained by their users, and secure their ongoing functionalities by transforming incrementally in harmony with the networks in which their users are embedded.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cities and Climate Change Science Conference (City of Edmonton, Canada, 5–7 March 2018).

  2. 2.

    https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/proyecciones-poblacionales.

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  1. Universidad San Gregorio de Portoviejo, Portoviejo, Ecuador

    Ignacio Loor

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  1. British Institute at Ankara, Ankara, Turkey

    Ender Peker

  2. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Anlı Ataöv

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Loor, I. (2021). Informal Green Infrastructure (IGI) and the Pursuit of Climate Responsive Environments in Quito City. In: Peker, E., Ataöv, A. (eds) Governance of Climate Responsive Cities. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73399-5_8

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