Issuu

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Fall 2019 Studio Report

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Studio Instructors. Tomás Folch, Eugenio Simonetti

This report examines Chile’s operational water infrastructure to spark a conversation about reimagining networks beyond monofunctional purposes. The goal is to foster social, environmental, and functional improvements in urban areas while addressing the critical need to adapt cities to climate change. Blue infrastructure—the integration of water systems into urban planning—presents a transformative opportunity to rethink how cities manage water resources to create more resilient, adaptive, and sustainable environments.

Teacher Assistant Simon Escabi

The extensive underground water network, with numerous nodes surfacing across the city, serves as a starting point for contemporary discussions on infrastructure. These discussions must address not only obsolescence but also how infrastructure can evolve to mitigate climate challenges and improve quality of life. In Santiago, hundreds of operational sites, once isolated or located in fragmented urban fabrics, are now enveloped by urban growth. Historically, these infrastructures occupied minimal surface space, creating negative externalities in their surroundings and failing to establish a positive relationship with their context.

Final Review Critics María Arquero, Felipe Correa, Sierra Bainbridge, Dilip da Cunha, Robin Winogrond, Hayriye Esbah-Tuncay

Reframing these systems as blue infrastructure encourages cities to integrate water management with urban development, leveraging natural processes to manage stormwater, reduce urban heat, and support biodiversity. This paradigm shift is essential as cities confront increasing pressures from climate change, such as rising temperatures, flooding, and water scarcity. By embedding water infrastructure within a broader ecological framework, urban areas can adapt to these challenges while fostering healthier, more livable environments for their residents.

Students Xiao He Bi, Karissa Lyla Campos, Warwin C. Davis, Yuru Ding, Wei Dou, Simon Escabi, Benjamin Hackenberger, Kimberley Huggins, Sydney Pedigo, Ui Jun Song, Leilei Wu, Wei Wu Mid-Term Review Critics Dainel Ibáñez, Daniel Daou

Research Antonia Besa, Victoria Pellegrini, Nicolas Kersting, Eduardo Maldonado

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

SOCIAL OPERATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE: Sustainable Water Models in Chile

Social Operative Infrastructure

Anita Berrizbeitia

for students in their last year of study. Option studios typically engage with timely topics such as climate change, social and environmental justice, fallow urban land, post-extraction landscapes, the regeneration of urban districts, and the future of cities, to name a few. Under the guidance of their studio critic and feedback from members of the community, when possible, students engage with “real-world” challenges. As such, exploring the future of water in a semi-arid metropolitan region is a worthy and urgent pedagogical exercise: understanding those multiple forces that, when they converge with degraded environmental conditions, produce a crisis at many levels, from the human to the economic to the ecological, is a fundamental skill for envisioning and designing how to redistribute life-giving resources to all. Demanding interdisciplinary and complex approaches at multiple scales, these operative social infrastructures were a perfect case example to test new frameworks for design and to explore the frontiers of landscape architecture as it necessarily engages with allied fields such as planning, urban design, climate resilience, and social sustainability, to name a few. This chapter registers the outcomes of fifteen weeks of intensive exploration by 12 students in the professional (MLAI) and post-professional (MLA II) graduate programs in landscape architecture. The studio builds on research conducted at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez’s Centro de Inteligencia Territorial. As such, the projects reflect the two pillars of academic inquiry that come together in the formulation of a landscape architectural project: research and design. Cartographic analysis at the territorial, regional, and local scales, stakeholder diagrams, and spatial and ecological studies, among others, unveil the inter-relatedness of a myriad of factors that, when converging with specific climate conditions and social vulnerabilities, guided the students toward a broader and more inclusive approach to the definition and scope of urban infrastructures in the 21st century. I am grateful to Tomás Folch and Eugenio Simonetti for bringing this topic of great relevance to the GSD and to the students who contributed with their creativity and dedication to imagining more just communities in the future.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Option studios at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design are offered every semester

Social Operative Infrastructure

Preface

Urban Water in the Andean Geography

Anita Berrizbeitia

Felipe Correa

Ines Dussaillant

María Arquero

184

Daniel Ibañez

208

Gini Lee

The Natural and Artificial Drinking Water Cycle in the Maipo River Basin, Santiago de Chile

Drinking Water Rights of the Metropolitan Region

Option Studio, Harvard GSD Fall 2019

182

Global Case Studies

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Preface

31% of the world’s water sources are located in Latin America, and if we include Caribbean countries, the drinking water coverage reaches 94%, matching developed countries. Surprisingly, 37 million people currently do not have access to water, and 100 million lack access to sanitation (World Bank). Although Chile has 99% drinking water coverage, much of its territory will be severely affected by the consequences of climate change, primarily droughts, floods caused by receding Andean glaciers, and projected changes in rainfall patterns. Due to these climate changes, the Andean regions must rethink the management of water resources and infrastructures. Improving the collection, storage, and distribution systems will be essential for ecological and socially sustainable development. Resources and infrastructure will have to be considered more integrated, focusing on the multiple dimensions to which these will have to respond. One of the main characteristics of water infrastructures is their long lifespan. We continue to use centuries-old infrastructure and recognize the traces of millennial constructions that have sustained civilizations through technical developments. Water systems have been the basis of social development, particularly in the invention and development of water collection and transportation systems. We can see this, for example, in the irrigation systems of Mesopotamia and the Roman routes of 310 miles (500 km) of aqueducts and 247 water tanks that supplied a population of a million inhabitants.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Latin America’s infrastructure and the challenges of climate change

Experience has shown us that the role of infrastructures goes beyond their specific operational functions. They are integrated into the city’s structure and take on secondary roles to pursue public interest. The changes, transformations, and evolutions of cities are strongly linked to urban processes that are, in turn, defined by constant flows. The interconnection of infrastructural landscapes makes it impossible to isolate them according to their particular operations and to strip them of the urban relationships established within the communities in which they are located1. From a geographical point of view, the provision of services is ubiquitous. Services distinguish what we understand to be “urban” or, in their absence, “rural.” If the implementation and coverage of services have this as a main objective, allowing regulatory processes and defining priorities, how is it that consequences or externalities are distributed unequally? Experience reveals deep inequalities that enhance segregation processes due to social and economic factors. Part of this problem lies in the invisibility of infrastructures when they function well, only becoming present when they fail and we recognize our vital dependence on them2. Consequently, the infrastructure systems have been considered from their functions, often lacking a design expression that connects them to the city and its processes. The disciplines of design have not taken a prominent role in the definition of their form, nor have the flows and mobilities that the infrastructures support been part of the criteria taken into account every time a building is designed or its environments modified.

Social Operative Infrastructure

The role of infrastructure

Infrastructure networks define the contemporary city before it is given a form. Its possibility of expansion and environmental justice is often mediated by the role played by its infrastructure. Stephen Graham studies how the appearance of private infrastructures of international capital can be intertwined with the great socioeconomic changes and ecological development of cities and urban regions. This research has sought to develop an approach to recognizing infrastructure opportunities for democratic instances with corresponding scales and agendas. The scale of the problem is not only urban but also territorial. Infrastructure and its use are fundamental to satisfying needs and improving cities, consolidating the habitability of informal settlements, and allowing territories to connect and develop. According to the World Bank3, countries must invest 4.5% of their GDP in infrastructure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. To achieve this, we must consider building and transforming existing infrastructure. We must raise the question of the operational function of infrastructure that extends across our cities, thinking about how to calibrate it, making it work not only for its original operation but also redefining it as a social and ecological tool to improve the lives of people and other living beings. Considering the various scales of infrastructure, all comprising a total coverage of urban areas, we recognize that the problem is more than just metropolitan. The multiplicity of scales on which it is structured defines a strategic opportunity to imagine that any intervention, no matter how specific or local, can be replicated and have a profound impact on habitability at a metropolitan scale. This is particularly relevant in a country such as Chile, where 85% of the population is urban.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The ubiquity of a deficient system

The geography of the Andes defines a gravitational water system. Water accumulates as snow in the mountains and begins a cycle from the hills, crossing valleys, until it reaches the ocean, enabling settlements, productive landscapes, cultural uses, and ecological functions. Within this section of the valley, we find cities and their water systems defined by hundreds of nodes, where gravity allows for the capture, conduction, storage, and distribution of water for the population. This extensive network is the starting point for a contemporary discussion on infrastructure, its obsolescence, and the role it can play in the future of our cities to improve people’s quality of life. To achieve this objective, we must insert the discussion into the discipline, understanding the multiple relationships that define the partialities that we design, recognizing the territory as the scale from which to look at the systems and infrastructures, such as the constructions in networks whose operation responds to the flows they harbor4. Flows and processes are the way of looking at the city5, understanding the resources that allow its operation, and making it visible again, not only in moments of operational crisis but in our daily lives as citizens. The bureaucracy and technicalities through which infrastructures are managed have led to their depoliticization6, preventing them from being understood socially, thinking about how they are conformed spatially, what scale they have, the externalities they produce, and the opportunities they invoke. Although infrastructure management has prevented social governance of water management, the increasingly aggressive environmental processes of climate change force us to think about the need to adapt to new socio-environmental scenarios and the relationships that we must assume from the infrastructure, whether due to its growth and associated urban forms, its ecological functions or social possibilities, among others. To work on them, we must think at multiple scales, not necessarily design them, but understand that we can have a comprehensive response to territories and systems, operating with intelligent projects, adaptable and conditioned by local definitions, while

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water infrastructure in the urban Andes

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

ecologically responding to the territory, interweaving between them a continuous landscape. We must advance from mono functionality to polyvalence7, proposing an infrastructure under a biological model where “an actor exhibits more than one state and the ability to connect and direct more than one link,” which results not in on overlapping of different features or addition programs, but as a combination; a new state that is not one another, but an intermediate nature. Critical Cartography The water atlas starts as a problem of representing what is not evident, that infrastructural reality that has been invisible to both our social experience and our discipline of design, particularly in contexts like Latin America where information is not readily open and easily accessible. From that perspective, the research brings mapping approaches from the field of critical cartography for making maps active, allowing us to build new knowledge and define potential tools to promote social change8. However, we do not seek to delve into political aspects of emancipation of power, but rather to make the exercise an opportunity to respond to historically sociopolitical problems9 that nowadays require us to include socioenvironmental and ecological aspects. In the work presented, we have looked to advance beyond the representation of the submerged or buried situation but instead to bring out counterarguments to shed light on marginalities, represent alternative cities, and imagine new futures. The research and projects presented here have driven exploration into the role of water infrastructure beyond its structural dimension as a form of initiating a discussion about networks beyond their monofunctional operation, looking to provide social, environmental, and functional developments for the city, defining a new urban development model that can be scaled, and generate economic benefits as well as social progress. The landscape has in its agenda the infrastructure,

Social Operative Infrastructure

looking through its intervention the promotion of social relationships and an ability to build an environmental project at a metropolitan scale for moving beyond an operative infrastructure toward a new ecological one.

2) Susan Leigh Star, “The Etnography of Infrastructure” American Behavioral Scientist 43 (Nov 1997): 377. 3) Banco Mundial, “El costo del gasto sostenible en infraestructura para los países en desarrollo equivale al 4,5 % del PIB”, 19 de Febrero, 2019, https://www.bancomundial. org/es/news/press-release/2019/02/19/price-tag-for-sustainable-infrastructure-spending-in-developing-countries-is-45-of-gdp#:~:text=En%20un%20nuevo%20informe%20del,global%20a%202%20%C2%B0C. 4) Keller Easterling, Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and the Houses in America (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), 2. 5) Star, Etnography. 6) Star, Etnography. 7) Mathew Johnson, “Polyvalent Infrastructures”, 99th ACSA Annual Meeting Proceedings, Where Do You Stand Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2011. 8) John Pickles, Geography, GIS, and the surveillant society. Papers and Proceedings of Applied Geography Conferences 14, 1991: 80-91. 9) Jeremy W. Crampton, John Krygier, “An Introduction to Critical Cartography”, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 4 (1), 11-33.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

1) Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, Splintering Urbanism Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition (London: Routledge, 2001).

01. Urban Water in the Andean Geography

• The Andes as a climate barrier • Origins of water: ice, snow and precipitation • Water crisis: consumption and climatic cycle • Contribution of meltwater to water supply • Financial sustainability of services • Geographical Infrastructures

Annex: Felipe Correa

Melting Giants: Why Andean Glaciers Matter

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

• Water Dependency on the Andes Mountain Range

The Andes mountain range is the longest in the world, extending over 4,300 miles (7000 km). With its source at 10°N, it crosses Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, constitutes a political-administrative border between Chile and Argentina, and finally reaches Tierra del Fuego at 56°S. Its average height is over 13,000 fasl (4000 masl), it includes the world’s tallest volcanoes, and its highest peak, the Aconcagua, reaches up to 22,900 fasl (6940 masl). From 35°S the mountain range’s height starts to decrease to just under 5000 fasl (1500 masl), finally sinking into the Atlantic Ocean at its southernmost point. Contrary to its height, the Andes Mountain Range is relatively narrow, approximately 120 miles wide (200 km), reaching just under 440 miles (700 km) at its widest point on the Altiplano Plateau. Given its continuity and dimensions, the Andes mountain range is a geographical and cultural barrier, historically hindering interaction between settlements on the eastern and western sides of the continent, prompting the development of heterogeneous identities along its extension. Since pre-Hispanic times, cultural landscapes have developed according to specific environmental particularities such as topography, hydrography, climate, and seasonality. Settlements would be established in strategic areas of the mountains with access to water, such as in valleys forming oases within arid zones or on plateaus at high

Image 01: Alexander Keith Johnston, “Mountains Chains in South America”, David Ramsey Map Collection (1850).

altitudes that would benefit from rainfall to support agriculture and cultivation. These mountain territories were shaped by the technical and economic requirements of extractive and productive management of natural resources, particularly geological and water reserves. A gravitational water management system was developed during pre-Hispanic times that would continue to influence water infrastructure management today. Rock and arid landscapes formed the foundations of entire cities; metal extraction enabled the creation of tools and the expression of beliefs; and the management of climate and gravity influenced the development of water-based production methods that persist to this day. Some examples of these are artificial irrigation systems using basins, terrace farming on slopes, aqueducts, underground water sources through wells or spring-fed tunnels, moisture capture from mist in hilly areas, or reeds in lagoons. An estimated 16% of global water resources come from Latin America, and the Andes are the main contributor to the fluvial system10. This is significant because the continent makes up only 9% of the world’s population11. Although the region is characterized by an abundance of water reserves in general, distribution is not equal due to variations in climate, fluctuation and atmospheric ocean phenomena, locations of glaciers, volumes of aquifers, and critical dependency of its sources.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water Dependency on the Andes Mountain Range

In climatic terms, the Andes mountain range blocks free atmospheric circulation between the east and west of the continent due to its length, continuity, and height. The air masses from the Pacific south and those of the Amazon generally crash into the Andes peaks and condense in rain or snow precipitation12. The high altitudes are, therefore, recognized as the regulatory factor of humidity and local atmospheric circulation that determine the presence of precipitation systems. As a result, the climates to the east and west of the Andes show opposing patterns despite their shared latitudes13: in the extreme north of the Andes (5-30°S), the cold and arid conditions in the Pacific coast differ from the warm, humid and rainy climate typical of the western side of the Andes; and from 35°S this climatic contrast is inverted, with wet temperate forests along the south of Chile, and semi-arid conditions of the temperate steppe of Argentine Patagonia (Garreaud, 2009:3).

from the southeast drag cold waters, reducing the temperatures of the tropical, eastern, and central Pacific and its adjacent air, making evaporation of ocean waters more difficult and interrupting the formation of clouds and precipitation. In this way, the cold Humboldt current that flows in the same direction, influenced by La Niña, accentuates the extremely dry aridity of the deserts of southern Peru and northern Chile. El Niño, on the other hand, generates the opposite phenomenon; the lower the intensity of the anticyclone, the higher the temperature of the Equatorial Pacific, leading to sub-average precipitations in the tropics and above-average precipitations in the subtropical regions and generally warmer than average air temperatures (Dussaillant, 2019:5). Therefore, both the altitude of the Andes and the fluctuating atmospheric ocean phenomena have varying impacts on the Andean climate along its length. This climatic heterogeneity plays a crucial role in determining the ecological diversity of the region.

These precipitation patterns are enhanced or diminished inter annually by the South Pacific Anticyclone corresponding to the atmospheric area over the ocean in which air descends and rotates anticlockwise, dragging trade winds from the southeast towards the north, inhibiting the vertical formation of clouds and, therefore, precipitation on its area of influence. This is a semi-permanent system that varies in intensity between seasons and moves between 25 and 35°S over the sea, characterizing the Mediterranean climates of the Andes: in the Summer, it moves south, extending the dry climate towards the south of Chile, while in the winter it weakens and moves to the north, where its location varies from east to west, affecting the Norte Chico area of Chile, the Peruvian Andes and the coasts of Ecuador, depending on its proximity to the continent (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, 2018). The oscillation of the anticyclone also affects ocean currents, coinciding with the El Niño South Oscillation phenomenon. This is characterized by the average temperature fluctuations of the ocean every 2 to 7 years, between a cold phase, La Niña, and a warm phase, El Niño, and its consequent impact on the atmosphere, periodically affecting the climate from the tropical Andes to around 35°S. La Niña is the result of a strengthening of the Anticyclone of the Pacific South. Trade winds

Next page. Image 02: own elaboration based on: Andean regions, size and distribution of glaciers according to Inés Dussaillant, “Recent contribution of Andean glaciers to water resources and sea-level rise: contribution of satellite observations” (PhD diss., Doctoral School of Sciences of the Universe , the Environment and Space, 2019),7; drawing of South America according to “Northwest and Southern South America Maps”, CIA Shaded Relief Archive, (1960-1990); glacier inventory according to Randolph Glacier Inventory Dataset (2017); contribution of glacier melt in the water consumed by country (in particular, irrigated area and domestic consumption of water of glacial origin, during a month with maximum contribution due to melt) according to UNESCO and GRID-Arendal, The Andean Glacier and Water Atlas: The Impact of Glacier Retreat on Water Resources (2018) 14.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The Andes as a climate barrier

Social Operative Infrastructure

Contribution of glacial melting to domestic use and agriculture

61.000 HÁ

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

BOLIVIA

de contribución entre 80-100%

515.400 people 402.000 HÁ de contribución entre 45-100%

PERÚ 18.100 HÁ

79.300 HÁ

360.000 people

CHILE 50 655

256.000 people ARGENTINA 429

95.000 people

Social Operative Infrastructure

26 Image 03: Charles Darwin, Geological Observations on South America (APS Museum, 1851).

Origins of water: ice, snow and precipitation Particular topographical and climatic conditions determine the existence of perpetual ice and snow masses in certain areas of the mountain. Glacial thaw, meltwater and precipitation constitute the origin of continental water, by contributing to runoff, which fluctuates seasonally, to the river flows. Towards the western slopes of the Andes, the watercourses are characterized by draining rapidly towards the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. The Loa River, the longest, is only 270 miles (440 km) long, compared to the Amazon River (4350 miles or 7000 km) or the Parana River (3040 miles or 4900 km) that flow from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. The glaciers are particularly crucial as water resources for the Tropical Andes (Exterior Tropics) and the Arid Andes, for their ability to store sweet water in the Winter in the form of ice and snow (accumulation period) and discharge thaw and meltwater into the rivers during the warmer months (ablation period). This phenomenon is called ‘delayed seasonal runoff’, and is fundamental for the maintenance of flow in arid and semiarid regions, as it compensates for the deficit caused by decreased rate of rain or drought. Glaciers contribute seasonally to flow, even when they are balanced with their climates - when they are not losing volume or receding - since the

mass accumulated in cold seasons would be equivalent to the meltwater in thawing seasons, therefore keeping a balance. In the Patagonian Andes on the other hand, the ice fields stand out for their contribution to the sea level, representing around 7-15% of the global glacial mass loss15.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Image 04: The contribution of a glacier through melting occurs mainly in the summer. If this mass loss is equivalent to the mass accumulated during winter, then the glacier is in equilibrium. On the other hand, if there is excess discharge, then the glacier is retreating. Source: Valentina Radic and Regine Hock, “Glaciers in the Earth’s Hydrological Cycle: Assessments of Glacier Mass and Runoff Changes on Global and Regional Scales”, Surv Geophys (2014), 826

Water crisis: consumption and climatic cycle Bolivia, Peru and Chile are among the Andean countries with the most water resource availability16 given their provision from glaciers, which has implied the development of regions whose water consumption is based on glacial meltwater. Bolivia is the nation with the highest consumption due to the extension of its cultivated surface. Country-specific consumption is understood in relation to the level of development of its productive sectors. In South America, irrigated agriculture tends to be the highest use for water consumption, accounting for 60-92% of consumptive extraction. Only 19% of water is used for domestic consumption and 11% for mining and industrial uses17. However these values vary by region or watershed18, so determining the water gap requires localized studies. High-altitude locations, on the other hand, also exhibit greater vulnerability to temperature increase and melting, as higher elevations experience accelerated warming. Throughout the 20th century, the annual average temperature in the Tropical Andes has increased by an average of 33°F (0.8°C), and in the Arid and Patagonian Andes, by around 32°F (0.2°C to 0.3°C) per decade since the mid-1970s. These variations are estimated to potentially increase significantly before the end of the 21st century. The isotherm has therefore

risen in altitude, and particularly in the Desert and Central Andes, snow cover has shown a declining trend, which is hard to pinpoint due to the lack of reliable historical records. Regarding precipitation projections, more rainy winters and drier summers are forecasted for tropical and high-altitude zones, while a reduction of over 30% in rainfall is expected for the southern Andes, particularly affecting Chile and Argentina19. These variations in temperature and precipitation, which also result in prolonged droughts, have contributed to the retreat of glaciers due to melting. On a continental scale, the Andean glaciers are clear indicators of the impacts of climate change in the southern hemisphere, as they are located along the same latitudinal transect. Currently, glaciers are retreating throughout the entire mountain range as a result of past climatic factors that have manifested over the long term. The Humboldt Glacier, the last glacier in Venezuela, has lost 99% of its surface area. In Colombia and Ecuador, only the largest glaciers on the highest peaks remain. Glaciers in Bolivia have already lost over two-thirds of their mass, and the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, while having experienced brief periods of glacier growth, has been rapidly retracting in recent decades. The Central and Arid Andes, on the other hand, show slightly less retreat, while the Patagonian Andes, particularly the southern subregion covering the ice fields, has experienced the most significant glacier mass loss on the continental scale20.

Financial sustainability of services

When a glacier is in retreat, the annual water contribution from glacier meltwater to river flow stops being constant and instead increases year by year. There comes a point where the contribution of glacier water to runoff reaches its maximum volume (peak water), and from then on, it gradually decreases due to the glacier’s reduction in mass. If these conditions persist, the glacier would eventually disappear21. It is estimated that many glaciers in the Andes have already reached their peak water (PW): notable examples include the decreased flow in the Magdalena basin in Colombia (PW: 1981), the Daule-Vinces basin in Ecuador (PW: 1980), the Santa basin in Peru (PW: 2011), the Titicaca basin in Bolivia (PW: 2011), the Colorado (PW: 2010) and Negro (PW: 2002) basins in Argentina, and the Rapel (PW: 2010), Biobío (PW: 2002), and Baker (PW: 2002) basins in Chile22.

Adapting to water scarcity requires significant investment in infrastructure. While the role and economic contribution of the government are essential for achieving effective water management, since the 1990s, Andean countries’ governments have been transferring the burden of operating and maintaining water supply and sanitation services, including wastewater management, to users. This involved implementing regulatory changes in tariff definitions and subsidies to ensure the financial sustainability of service provision and to promote greater equity in access to water.

Glacial-origin water is particularly significant for maintaining river flows in basins located in arid areas with marked seasonality, such as the high Andean regions of Bolivia, southern Peru, and the northern and central parts of Chile. As mentioned earlier, its contribution to runoff helps mitigate the impact of reduced precipitation and drought, which is more pronounced during the warmer months. However, the threat of water scarcity becomes even more vulnerable for urban settlements dependent on retreating glaciers that have reached or are soon to reach their peak water, as they will no longer receive the runoff they are accustomed to, especially during the dry months. Consequently, this situation affects their domestic, productive, and industrial sectors.

Currently, over 90% of the urban population in Latin America has access to drinking water, and over 60% have improved sanitation services23. Paradoxically, those who lack access to water infrastructure networks are generally excluded from water subsidies within the tariff system. Instead, they end up purchasing water by the gallon from tanker trucks, often at an unregulated price, higher than that of the network, varying based on supply and demand. This is the case for over two million people living without access to drinking water in cities like Lima. Residents of remote hillside neighborhoods far from the infrastructure networks descend weekly to fill their tanks using intricate routes to where the tanker trucks are located. For 260 gallons (1 m3) of water, they may end up paying up to 30 soles (US$7.8), over 10 times what a low-income resident connected to the water network pays in the same city24.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Contribution of meltwater to water supply

While Latin America has made significant progress in providing greater access to water and sanitation, there is still a long way to go to ensure universal access at a fair price under all circumstances. Moreover, achieving the infrastructure quality standards set out in the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, aiming for 2030, requires even more effort. As shown by this plan, the concept of “quality of services” has become more comprehensive and even cross-border, considering water provision as part of a broader cycle, to effectively address future water challenges: recurring prolonged droughts, retreating glaciers, increasing water demand, and sometimes inadequate or nonexistent infrastructure. The improvement of water and sanitation service infrastructure now aims to make water extraction from sources or reserves sustainable, ensuring supply continuity in the face of scarcity, promoting efficient use through water treatment and reuse, and ensuring safety for both human health and the environment. This includes protecting ecosystems or restoring those that have been affected. Many of these scenarios highlight progressive water stress exacerbated by the constant processes of population and urban growth. In a geographical context that has always operated as a gravitational water system, investment has often been discouraged, relying on the natural system’s inherent functionality. However, this approach has simultaneously jeopardized the sustainability of distribution due to its complete dependence on climatic cycles. This underscores the need, on one hand, for improved identification and monitoring of areas with water variability and potential shortages, and on the other hand, for the implementation of infrastructure for water storage, treatment, use, and distribution. This comprehensive system must be considered at the level of the river basin and integrated into the process of urbanization.

10) Carol P. Harden, “Human Impacts on Headwater Fluvial Systems in The Northern and Central Andes”, Geomorpholog 79 (2006): 249-263. 11) BID y ZOMA Capital, Radiografía del Agua: Brecha y Riesgo Hídrico en Chile (Marzo 2018), 14. 12) José A. Salaverry, Macro-ecología de los Andes Peruanos (Institut Français d’Etudes Andines, 2006). 13) Maximiliano Viale et al. “Contrasting Climates at Both Sides of the Andes in Argentina and Chile”, Frontiers in Environmental Science, Volume 7, Article 69 (2019): 2. 14) Today, there is no consensus on the longitudinal nomenclature of Andean regions; however, we will refer to seven subregions based on glaciological subdivisions as indicated in the diagram. On the other hand, the transverse profile of the Andes allows for the distinction of multiple ecological zones due to the alternating variation in altitude from east to west. The diversity of ecosystems has been described using indigenous terminology from Peru. (Salaverry, José A. Macro-ecología de los Andes peruanos (Institut Français d’Etudes Andines, 2006),74 15) Inés Dussaillant, “Recent contribution of Andean glaciers to water resources and sea-level rise: contribution of satellite observations” (PhD diss., Doctoral School of Sciences of the Universe, the Environment and Space, 2019),VII, VIII, 10. 16) Recent publications on diagnoses of water availability and water footprint by country in Latin America (“Water Footprint Network “, 2020; y Fernando Miralles-Whilhelm, et. Al, Agua para el Futuro: Estrategia de seguridad hídrica para América Latina y el Caribe (BID, 2017)), still cite outdated studies carried out with data obtained between 1996 and 2005 (A.K.Chapagain y A.Y. Hoekstra, “Water Footprint and Nations”, Value of Water Research Report, 16 (UNESCO-IHE, 2004); M. Mekonnen y A.Y Hoekstra, “National water footprint accounts: The green, blue and grey water footprint of production and consumption” Value of Water Research Report, 50 (UNESCO-IHE, 2011)).. 17) BID y CEPAL. Proceso Regional de las Américas Foro Mundial del Agua (2018), 5. 18) In Chile, for example, the agricultural industry accounts for 88% of the demand for water from surface and underground sources at the national level; while the consumption of drinking water and sanitation represents 6.3%, increasing to 20% in the Metropolitan Region. Mining, meanwhile, represents approximately 4% of the national demand, while in Antofagasta it reaches 49%. BID y ZOMA Capital, Radiografía del Agua: Brecha y Riesgo Hídrico en Chile (Marzo 2018), 75. 19) UNESCO y GRID-Arendal, The Andean Glacier and Water Atlas: The Impact of Glacier Retreat on Water Resources (2018), 8. 20) Inés Dussaillant, “Recent contribution of Andean glaciers to water resources and sea-level rise: contribution of satellite observations” (PhD diss., Doctoral School of Sciences of the Universe, the Environment and Space, 2019), 55. 21) Ibid, (2019), 12. 22) UNESCO y GRID-Arendal, The Andean Glacier and Water Atlas: The Impact of Glacier Retreat on Water Resources (2018), 43. 23) Fernando Miralles-Whilhelm, et. Al, Agua para el Futuro: Estrategia de seguridad hídrica para América Latina y el Caribe (BID, 2017),7. 24) D. Fernández, et. Al, Políticas regulatorias y tarifarias en el sector de agua potable y saneamiento en América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL, Recursos Naturales y Desarrollo,2021), 45; and “Las crueles paradojas del agua en la desértica capital del Perú”, Gestion, February, 2021, accessed November, 2023, https://gestion.pe/peru/las-crueles-paradojas-del-agua-en-la-desertica-capital-del-peru-noticia/?ref=gesr

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Geographical Infrastructures

Felipe Correa

Santiago de Chile and San Francisco de Quito both share an intimate relationship with the snow-capped peaks of the Andes Mountain Range. It is not uncommon for residents of Quito to wake up to majestic views of Cotopaxi, Iliniza, and Cayambe, three of the eight majestic volcanoes that make up Prussian naturalist, Alexander Von Humboldt, christened “the avenue of the volcanoes.” A string of high-altitude volcanoes that circumbscribe the valleys that today make up Quito’s metropolitan region. Similarly, residents of Santiago will witness the many layers of green, purple and white that make up the contours of the Andes Mountains that flank the eastern edge of the city. While much has been written about this connection between city and mountain, this link goes well beyond the visual, as these mountain tops are the hydrological lifeline of Quito, Santiago and a myriad of other cities and towns in the region. The Andes Mountain peaks play a crucial role in supplying water to cities and towns from the highlands to the coast, including major urban centers like Bogota, Medellin, Lima, Quito and Santiago. These monumental peaks act as natural water towers, capturing precipitation in the form of rain and snow. Glaciers, snowmelt, and high-altitude ecosystems like the páramo retain water, slowly releasing it throughout the year. This self-regulated flow feeds rivers, lakes, and groundwater systems that supply water to urban and rural areas below. In Quito, for example, glaciers and páramo ecosystems provide consistent water to rivers like the Pita and San Pedro, which are vital for the city’s water supply. Similarly, as this volume clearly illustrates, Santiago relies on the Maipo River, also fed by glacial melt and snow from the Andes. As the water travels downstream, it supports increasing demand for agriculture, industry, and households in both urban and agricultural areas, making Quito and Santiago just two pieces of a much larger and complex water distribution puzzle. Water contestation between agriculture and cities is a growing issue in areas reliant on Andean glaciers, as shrinking water supplies has drastically intensified competition for this vital resource. Agriculture, particularly large-scale farming, demands significant water for irrigation, especially in arid or semi-arid areas near the Andes. In countries like Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, urban and agricultural regions depend heavily on the same water sources from Andean rivers and glaciers for their potable water supply. As glaciers recede due to climate change, the natural flow of meltwater diminishes, heightening tensions between urban populations and agricultural sectors. Cities prioritize water for human consumption, industrial use, and economic growth, while farmers need consistent water supplies to sustain crop yields and livestock. In many cases, water rights systems favor agricultural enterprises—particularly those that operate at an industrial scale and have access to significant amounts of capital— leaving urban areas in precarious conditions as they must cope with severe shortages during periods of drought. This imbalance exacerbates social and economic tensions, as both sectors fight for dwindling water resources in a region where upriver communities have the upper hand on water rights and distribution. While glaciers along the Andes are crucial for the provision of water to the cities and towns between mountain and coast, their importance is even greater towards the west, as they play a pivotal role in the ecological stability of the Amazon Rainforest. Perched high in the mountains, Andean glaciers play a role in regulating water flow to the Amazon by providing a continuous supply of freshwater through glacial melt. While atmospheric rivers —narrow corridors of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere— are primarily responsible for providing direct rainfall to the Amazon, the Andean glaciers ensure a more constant supply of water, especially during dry seasons or periods when atmospheric rivers are less active, primarily June to September. Together, these two sources of water help maintain the Amazon’s year-round water balance, with glaciers acting as a buffer that mitigates the variability in rainfall delivered by atmospheric rivers.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Melting Giants: Why Andean Glaciers Matter

In 1963, Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry began construction of the Carretera Marginal de la Selva. Conceived as a 2500-mile corridor that flanked the eastern edge of the Amazon River Basin, it was to be a transnational corridor that linked Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia along the eastern edge of the Amazon. Seen, literally and metaphorically, as roads to eradicate poverty, the highway project promised these nations an unprecedented access to the land and riches of the Amazon River Basin. While implemented in a rudimentary manner, this initiative exemplified the mid twentieth century notion that roadways were the path to integration and development of the South American interior, which at the time was seen as backwards and economically stagnant. While the plan never yielded the results that Belaunde and his successors hoped for, the promise of extracting wealth through roads continues to lure governments and private international investment. Is it possible for South America to conceive a similar vision with a focus on glacier preservation and environmental stewardship of the Andean páramo? Present day South America must shift from this purely extractive mindset to one that encompasses a more holistic view of its environments. If for Belaunde, “road to new lands” was the definite project for the integration of the Amazon Rainforest into the Andes region, today we must think about the conservation of the Andes Mountains, more specifically its chain of glaciers, as an environmental blueprint for the livelihood of the region. The conservation and responsible management of Andean glaciers must transcend national borders and be understood as a transnational collective resource. This act is essential for the survival and prosperity of South America. These glaciers are the lifeblood of the region, providing water to millions of people in cities and irrigating the fields that supply them with food. As glaciers retreat due to global warming, water supplies, food production, and energy security are continuously at risk. Therefore, preserving Andean glaciers is not only an environmental imperative but also vital for the economic prosperity and well-being of millions of people that reside along its foothills. Felipe Correa is an architect and founding Partner of Somatic Collaborative an applied research and design studio in New York City. He is the author of São Paulo: A Graphic Biography and Beyond the City: Resource Extraction Urbanism in South America.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The interconnectedness between the mountain peaks and downstream ecosystems —both towards the Pacific Ocean and the interior of the continent— underscores the importance of aggressively conserving Andean ecosystems to ensure a sustainable water supply, especially as climate change accelerates glacial retreat and alters precipitation patterns. While new and innovative water management strategies are much needed at a metropolitan scale for most if not all cities along the Andes, there must also be a concerted effort to upscale these efforts and preserve the páramo at a regional and transnational scale. The páramo is South America’s hydrological first line of defense, and national governments must come together to preserve this resource.

Social Operative Infrastructure

02. The Natural and Artificial Drinking Water Cycle in the Maipo River Basin, Santiago de Chile

• Geographic and thermal conditions of the Maipo river basin • Hydraulic infrastructures • Catchment and production of drinking water • Distribution and accumulation of drinking water • Collection and restitution into the water cycle • Recommendations

Annex: Ines Dussaillant How to rethink water to respond to the socio-environmental challenges of contemporary urbanization

Firstname Lastname

• Drinking water cycle (Intro)

From an early age, we are taught that water defines a cycle of changes in state and flow: from the ocean and its evaporation to the forming of clouds by condensation and rivers through precipitation. This water cycle, whose diagram has been how children and adults recognize and form opinions and realities, has recently been updated. In October 2022, the US Geographical Survey published a new diagram25 after 20 years, including humans as protagonists of a prevailing cultural assumption that the water cycle was a natural one. The new diagram positions humans as the central factor of a new understanding and includes a multiscalar vision of the previous image, advancing from a single great cycle towards multiple cycles of varying scales. Agricultural, industrial, and domestic activities that are both consumptive and non-consumptive, as well as infrastructures for the collection, accumulation, and distribution of water, allow us to recognize the system beyond a cycle, where vectors are not unidirectional and on which new factors

Image 05: The Water Cycle. October, 3, 2022, https://www.usgs. gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-cycle-diagrams.

are to be considered. Water is not necessarily permanently flowing gravitationally, but being used once or several times, being transformed into energy, enabling extractive activities, and allowing for changes in land use; recognizing that from a perspective of constant movement, we must now recognize it as an anthropogenic cycle and that its representation is not necessarily balanced, but is also imbalanced in its volume and change in quality. Each activity that is part of the cycle is a factor of change: agricultural fertilizers flow into rivers, deforestation drags sediment into riverbeds, affecting the habitats that depend on them, urbanization, and our cities run on water and also generate greywater and blackwater. To this, we must add that the cycle will be increasingly affected by climate change, making it different each year, either stable or with sudden changes and increasingly greater consequences. This new diagram demands us to understand better the need to respond to our current crisis systematically and to transform it into an opportunity for sustainability for our urban society.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Potable Water Cycle (Intro)

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

When looking at the geography of Chile, we recognize the predominance of the Andes mountain range as the geomorphological structure organizing the Andean water cycle and, in turn, the urbanization process through which the territory is developed. The USGS water cycle diagram explicitly represents the transversal valleys that cross the country, as well as the processes and activities that the inhabitants carry out in them. Studying the water infrastructures in a city like Santiago requires looking into the structure of hydrographic basins and the gravitational framework that feeds them. We can then identify interventions, including reserves, canals, treatment plants, and aqueducts, among others, that have been created to sustain the 8 million people living in the Metropolitan Region; a mediterranean climate rapidly transitioning towards a desert one.

Image 06: The Water Cycle. October, 3, 2022, https://www.usgs. gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-cycle-diagrams.

Geographic and thermal conditions of the Maipo river basin Basins are the geographic structures from which to understand the integral management of the water cycle and not the administrative or political definitions of the territory. They are defined by naturally concave surfaces determined by the flow of their waters towards the same channels. In central Chile, the Maipo River basin crosses the most populated regions in Chile, the Metropolitan Region and the Region of Valparaíso, home to more than 6 million people. It is born on the slope

of the volcano of the same name, and in its 155-mile (250 km) length towards the Pacific Ocean, it covers a surface of over 3.7 million acres (15,000 km2). Along its length, we can identify four distinct areas: the superior basin on the Andes with glaciers and high mountain streams, the intermediate depression where the city of Santiago is located, the Coastal Mountain Range, and the mouth of the river to the south of the Llolleo city. Each of these sectors has a particular relationship to its use in terms of energy production, extractive activities, and urban and agricultural consumption. Santiago is the largest urban center in the basin, located at the foot of the Andes

The Maipo River Basin

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin Glaciers

These geographical conditions affect the region’s climate, particularly the coastal mountain range that acts as a climatic screen, causing a greater thermal oscillation in the valley than in the coastal areas of the same latitude, low average humidity, and moderate prevailing winds. The average annual temperature is 57°F (13.9°C), with a Summer average of 71°F (22°C), and a Winter average of 46°F (8°C). In the intermediate depression where Santiago is located, there is less rainfall than the coast, and it increases again towards the higher altitudes of the mountains. It should be noted that in recent decades, the central zone of Chile has developed a negative annual precipitation trend of around 5% per decade as a result of climate change and a sequence of dry years26. The Maipo River basin has a mixed-feeding hydrological regime. The runoff from its channels, varying seasonally, comes from the glacial thaw, snowmelt, and precipitation. The tributaries that feed the Mapocho River and the Maipo River are born from the Andes mountain range, water courses that, after crossing the city of Santiago, join to form a single channel that finally flows into the ocean. There are over 1,20027 glaciers in the mountainous sector of the basin, covering an area of 100,000 acres (450 km2) and storing an estimated volume of water of approximately 3,500 acres (14 km3). The El Yeso Glacier and the Tupungato Volcano stand out as the bodies of ice with the largest surface area. Studies show that many of these glaciers are receding as a result of prolonged droughts and rising temperatures, with bodies of ice having lost

up to 25% of their area in the last 30 years28. Likewise, glaciers have been affected by the albedo effect, which implies the darkening of ice surfaces as a result of dust carried by the winds, increasing the absorption of solar radiation and, therefore, accelerating melting29. Studies by the Cetaqua Research Center (2020) estimate that glacial melt reaches 40% of the runoff from the Maipo River at the end of summer. However, it is projected that by the end of this century, it will decrease to 15%30, leaving the region and the city of Santiago vulnerable, particularly in the warmer months, demanding infrastructure development for more efficient hydric use. The location of the 0 isotherm, the height at which precipitation falls as snow, also influences the flow rates of the basin. This is located in the central mountainous area between 5000 and 11,500 fasl (1500 and 3500 masl), at an average of 7200 fasl (2200 masl). Occasionally, there is snow at lower altitudes, but not below 3300 fasl (1000 masl). The mere 14.5 inches (370 mm) of average annual rainfall in the city contrasts with the abundant rainfall of over 1000 mm per year at an altitude above 10,000 fasl (3000 masl)31, and whose accumulation in the form of snow constitutes an important part of the water supply for the entire basin. When isotherm 0 is located at an elevation above average, the area receiving rain versus snow increases, increasing the surface area of runoff into rivers, with high risks of massive landslides32. According to Rene Garreaud, an increase of 2,300 feet (700 m) of the 0 isotherm to its mean value doubles the volume of water available for runoff in the upper part of the basin33, increasing the level of turbidity of the water captured in the Maipo River. This generally leads to halting water treatment plants that supply drinking water to a large part of Santiago, as did occur in 2013 and 2017.

Social Operative Infrastructure

mountain range at an average of around 1800 fasl (550 masl). The condition of a valley defines this city as an inclined surface of 50 miles (80 km) N-S and 22 miles (35 km) E-W in length, which descends by 6% from approximately 3300 to 1400 fasl (1,000 to 430 masl). The valley is set between imposing mountain ranges: the Andes to the east, the coastal range to the west, the Chacabuco range to the north, and the Paine hills to the south.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Geographical Conditions and Land Use

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin Glaciers

Mining Land Use Agricultural Land Use Urban and industrial Land Use Operative and Non-Operative Freshwater Infrastructure

As Patrick Geddes34 proposed in the term “Valley Section” as an idyllic representation of urbanization on a regional scale, from the mountain to the ocean, seeking to establish relationships between geographical conditions, human settlements, and their productive activities; the section of the valley is the direct representation of the water cycle in Santiago. By representing the water infrastructures on it, we can recognize the relationship between geography and water flow, the infrastructures that intervene, and the productive activities that each section of the valley depends on. A gravitational water system and its infrastructure is a model through which we can study and project territorial urbanization towards a more sustainable model. Among several companies, Aguas Andinas is the main company controlling the water infrastructure in the Maipo River basin, supplying drinking water to 175,400 acres (71,000 hectares) of the RM35. Its management is in hundreds of urban and semi-urban lands, covering 5,881 acres (2,380 hectares). The corresponding drinking water treatment plants, wastewater treatment plants, water tanks, and wells are located on their respective sites. The drinking water cycle is divided into three stages: the catchment and production, the distribution and accumulation, the collection, and its restitution into the water cycle.

Catchment and production of drinking water Dams and reservoirs The three largest raw water reservoirs for Santiago are located at an altitude of 8200 fasl (2500 masl). El Yeso reservoir, with a capacity of 48 billion gallons (220 million m3); Laguna Negra, with a capacity of 142 billion gallons (648 million m3); and Lo Encañado lagoon, with 10 billion gallons (50 million m3), which together constitute a maximum volume of 201 billion gallons (918 million m3) of raw water reserve for the capital36. If the reservoirs contained this amount and we applied a daily consumption of 351 million gallons (1.6 million m3) of water, we could conclude that, in theory, we would have raw water reserves lasting for 612 days. However, this figure is considerably

far from reality due to a constant reduction of snowfall over 2,200 m altitude, a shortage of rainfall, evaporation due to high temperatures, and withdrawal of a percentage of water from the Maipo river by private owners of nonconsumptive water rights. Up to the year 2018, the 230 tanks and over 500 wells enabled the assurance of 11 hours of autonomy in the case of excessive turbidity of the Maipo River. In February 2020, Aguas Andinas opened mega tanks in Pirque, located at the feet of the Andes mountain. With a capacity of 330 million gallons (1,500,000 m3), these can provide the network with 34 hours of autonomy for provision in the case of high turbidity of the Maipo River37. This infrastructure is equal to the surface of 50 football pitches, with an area of 4700 square feet (440 m2). The Laguna Negra Aqueduct and the Toma Independiente of the Maipo river The water reserves located at 8200 fasl (2500 masl) are conducted from the El Yeso reservoir to the Laguna Negra aqueduct through a 3-mile (5 km) long pipeline called CAYA. The waters of Laguna Negra are discharged towards Lo Encañado lagoon, to descend through the Manzanito estuary until it joins the Laguna Negra aqueduct. This engineering project was built in 1917 and is over 50 miles (80 km) in length, allowing for the transportation of 63,000 gal/min (4 m3/s) of raw water from the Andes to the water treatment plants that are located at the foot of the mountain range at 3000 fasl (890 masl) in the Las Vizcachas sector. The flow of the Laguna Negra aqueduct, which covers 320,000 to 480,000 gal/min (20 to 30 m3/s) depending on the time of year, is not enough to supply the entire demand of Santiago. This makes it necessary for a second volume of 250,000 gal/min (16 m3/s) to be withdrawn from El Yeso reservoir, which, after becoming turbid in the Maipo River, is made drinkable downstream in the Toma Independiente sector located in San José de Maipo. Drinking plants and wells Aguas Andinas obtains 80% of its urban water supply from the Maipo River and the remaining 20% from the Mapocho river basin and deep wells. Due to the geological conditions of Santiago, the water collected from the Andes is quite hard due to the mineral exposure to

Social Operative Infrastructure

Hydraulic infrastructures

The water captured through the Toma Independiente of the Maipo River (250,000 gal/min or 16 m3/s) is processed in the Las Vizcachas Complex (240,000 gal/min or 15 m3/s), located at 2,900 fasl (890 masl), which includes the Las Vizcachas, Las Vizcachitas, and Ingeniero Antonio Tagle DWTP. The latter and the La Florida, Padre Hurtado, and Quebrada de Ramon DWTP produce 360,000 gal/min (22.5 m3/s) of drinking water. Meanwhile, the waters collected from the Mapocho River are made drinkable through the San Enrique Plant 3000 fasl (900 masl), El Sendero, Lo Gallo, Vitacura, Punta de Águila, Arrayán, and La Dehesa, which together contribute up to 63,000 gal/min (4 m3/s) to the network. Parallel to these rainwater systems, a network of deep wells contributes 100,000 gal/ min (6.5 m3/s). The depth to which these wells probe varies from 130 feet to 1000 feet (40 to 300 m) below ground level.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

which it is exposed38. Because of this, drinking water treatment plants (DWTP) carry out a fivestage process to reach a level of purification: decantation, chemical separation, settling, filtering, chlorination, and fluoridation.

Title

Firstname Lastname

Freshwater Capture and Potabilization

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Glaciers

Raw Water Reservoirs Drinking Water Aqueducts Mega Ponds Drinking Water Treatment Plants

Urban aqueducts / Distribution

Drinking water to the south of Santiago from Las Vizcachas sector is transported to the north to be integrated into a unified system, joining the water network of the Mapocho sector through the San Carlos, La Florida, and Las Perdices canals through four aqueducts described below: 1.

The Laguna Negra aqueduct, built in 1917, is 54 miles (87 km) long and stems from Laguna Negra to the Las Vizcachas plant, then flows through a slide of the San Carlos canal to the street Isabel la Católica, where it flows west, ending up in the Recinto Antonio Varas (40 million gallons or 150,000 m3).

The Paralelo Aqueduct, built in 1969, is 13.6 miles (22 km) long and flows along the San Carlos canal from the Las Vizcachas plant to the Recinto Los Conquistadores in Providencia (21 million gallons or 80,000 m3).

The Third Aqueduct, built in 1977, is 11.5 miles (18.6 km) long, located close to and practically parallel to the Las Perdices Canal, along a higher level and at a softer slope than the previously described aqueducts. It stems from the Las Vizcachas plant, through La Florida DWTP, ending in front of the Parque Padre Hurtado, perpendicular to La Reina/Quebrada de Ramón aqueduct, that runs from Quebrada de Ramón feeding a series of tanks such as the San Ramon and Padre Hurtado DWTP.

Much shorter than the others described, the Puente Alto aqueduct only connects the Las Vizcachas plant to the Domingo Tocornal tanks site, located 1.2 miles (2 km) from Las Vizcachas. From these tanks, it supplies the Cerro Negro storing facility, located 7.4 miles (12 km) towards the west in the commune of San Bernardo.

Underground and elevated reservoirs / Accumulation of drinking water Aguas Andinas maintains 230 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of more than 317 million gallons (1,200,000 m3), backed by 600 emergency deep wells. These are located throughout the city, with different typologies, underground or elevated, according to the level at which they are located. The first reservoirs are located in the eastern sector of the city. Taking advantage of the natural slope of the area, the tanks are placed above the average level of the neighborhood being supplied, and their gravitational operation is undertaken through pressure-reducing valves. In contrast, the elevated drinking water storage reservoirs (water towers) are located in the central and western sectors of the capital. Although the distribution network feeds them, they are supported by deep wells located in the same facilities.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Distribution and accumulation of drinking water

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Freshwater Accumulation and Distribution

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Glaciers Buried Water Tanks Elevated Water Tanks Wells

Collection and restitution into the water cycle

The sewage system has an efficient gravity collection network that extends 8000 miles (12,823 km). Wastewater is treated in 3 biofactories: La Farfana in Maipú, Mapocho Trebal in Padre Hurtado, and El Rual in Tiltil. The biofactories decontaminate residual waters, leaving them in optimal conditions for restitution into the natural channels and their subsequent use for irrigation, biosolids for agriculture, production of natural gas for urban residential use, and the generation of electrical and thermal energy. Together, these plants allow for the decontamination of approximately 72% of the wastewater of the population of the capital and benefit over 321,237 acres (130,000 hectares) of agricultural land39. There are a further ten smaller installations and a plant in the northwest of the concession area. Together, all these installations purify 100% of the wastewater of the Metropolitan Region. Domestic greywater Today, the reuse of treated wastewater represents only 5.4% of total discharged water, which is being used by third parties40. Although this proportion is low, there is interest in regulating its processing. On February 15, 2018, Law 21.075 was passed, which regulates the collection, reuse, and disposal of greywater, and its regulatory details were officially published in September 2022. With this, the law article prohibiting buildings with sanitary feasibility from having a private sewage system is repealed. The new regulation understands the greywater reuse system as a set of facilities for collecting, treating, storing, and conducting greywater for its projected reuse, mainly for irrigation, toilets, and urinals. The regulation only considers the reuse of greywater generated in sinks, showers, baths, and washing machines but excludes dishwashers. Finally, once treated, greywaters cannot be stored for over 48 hours and must then be evacuated.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Sewage and restitution into the water cycle

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Water Treatment Process and Restitution to the Enviroment

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Glaciers Sewer System Sewage Treatment Plants Biosolids Treatment Plants

At the start of the system, at 8700 fasl (2650 masl), where the water resource is captured in Andean reservoirs or rivers, there is an opportunity to foment human recreational activities or an “ecological buffer”, linked to the development of regulatory tools that ensure the protection of Andean glaciers. Following the process of water capture, the system is entirely closed without exchanges in the stages of water treatment, distribution, accumulation, and individual domestic use. Value is only generated at the network’s end at around 1500 fasl (450 masl) when blackwater is treated in Santiago’s biofactory. At this point, a positive impact is generated through biogas and the restitution of clean water to the water cycle, consequently allowing for the regeneration of agricultural land near the Maipo river located to the southeast of the basin.

Recycling infrastructures or from the tube to the platform Infrastructure space is a form, but not like a building is a form; it is an updating platform unfolding in time to handle new circumstances, encoding the relationships between buildings, or dictating logistics41. Today, we face irreversible water scarcity due to a sharp decrease in the Andean glacier reserves and annual rainfall. This, added to population growth of 3% per year in the Maipo River basin, forces us to adapt our settlements to a new model for the water cycle. Understanding the sequence of parts of the basin’s water infrastructure system and its operation, the development of the following aspects is proposed: 1.

The reusing of the water infrastructure of our cities, moving from a closed system to an open one that can generate multiple points of interaction with users, increasing efficiency and social impact throughout the entire water infrastructure cycle. As a reference and analogy, we can take the economic theory of Paul Choudary, who concludes that traditional business models are like “tubes” that only generate value by controlling a linear series of activities with inputs at the end of the chain. For example, a company produces a material X and delivers it to its suppliers Z. Today, the new business models are platforms on which companies bring together producers and consumers, generating value exchanges like Uber or Airbnb, breaking the classic value change and increasing their competitive advantage. In the case of water infrastructure, the same thing happens as in the traditional “tube” type business models mentioned by Choudary, since the physical form of water infrastructure is linear. Its operation is through a closed system, as it is a basic service in which there are only “exchanges of social and environmental opportunities and interactions” at both ends42. In the case of water infrastructure, the same thing happens as in the traditional “tube” type business models mentioned by Choudary, since the physical form of water infrastructure is linear. Its operation is through a closed system, as it is a basic service in which there are only “exchanges of social and environmental opportunities and interactions” at both ends.

As Marvin Graham says, infrastructure networks are assumed to be integrators of urban space43. This implies that the closed system should be modified to become an open system in which multiple social innovation or interaction opportunities exist in all the processes and scales of the water cycle. The case of the Unidades de Vida Articulada (UVA) in Medellín, Colombia, arises as an example of good practices. This project originated when the Public Company of Medellín (PCM) developed a lighting masterplan for the city and detected “dark islands”, 144 water tanks built on the old periphery of the city, which are now inserted within the urban fabric. After analyzing these sites, points of violence and insecurity in neighborhoods devoid of public spaces and basic equipment, the PMC selects 14 tanks to intervene. The UVAs consist in the transformation of water infrastructure in quality public spaces: closures are removed, the site is revitalized, and new connections between communities are made, weaving neighborhoods together44. Taking the UVAs as an example, we have the challenge of “opening” water infrastructure in the Maipo river basin to create multiple interactions in the drinking water cycle between 1500 fasl (450 masl) and 8700 fasl (2650 masl). 2.

Increasing the reuse of treated greywater for domestic and industrial use. The Maipo River basin is where the largest number of industries in the country are concentrated45. This presents the

Social Operative Infrastructure

RECOMMENDATIONS

Slowing down the flow of water through the system. The urban water infrastructure system is far from being consolidated as a simple gravitational cycle, understood as the flow of water from the mountains to the sea. Instead, we can see a multiplicity of actors, processes, uses and reuses, the dimension and abstraction of its infrastructure, the urban space that it uses and marginalizes. This complexity allows us to think about the possibility of using this network more intensively, making the actors interact with each other, proposing new cycles and providing feedback to new processes that make more efficient use of resources. Likewise, the focus should extend to the urban impacts that this management could generate; opening new possibilities to make its deployment an opportunity to improve and maintain the urban landscape, recover marginalized areas, and generate new agricultural economies, among many other possibilities.

Incorporating technology to increase efficiency, both of the supply, to detect and reduce losses, and of consumption, to incorporate good practices. Today, 16% of the soils in the Maipo River basin, equivalent to almost 617,763 acres (250,000 hectares), are for agricultural use and irrigation45. Over 70% of this area is irrigated using the traditional irrigation system (laying, sleeves, traditional furrow) versus 30% by technical irrigation (drip irrigation and micro-aspersion)46. This situation evidences the need for subsidies and obligations of the staggered application over time that foment the implementation of technified irrigation to allocate less water to irrigation for agriculture without compromising production. The case of Israel stands out as a pioneering country in the development of drip irrigation technology. This distribution method, developed in 1959, allows plants to absorb 95% of the water given, a much higher proportion than aspersion, surface, or flooding.

Uso de suelo

Superficie (Ha)

Proporción (%)

Áreas sin vegetación

442336

28,9

Terrenos agrícolas e irrigados

246447

16,1

Bosque nativo y mixto

73190

4,8

Praderas

64736

4,2

Áreas urbanas e industriales

58220

Plantaciones forestales

9584

0,6

Minería industrial

1966

0,1

Otros usos*

633921

41,4

Total

768427 *Referidos a matorral, matorral/pradera, rotación cultivo/pradera, cuerpos de agua, nieves/glaciares, humedales y áreas no reconocidas.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

opportunity to build sustainable water treatment plants upstream of the 617,763 acres (250,000 hectares) of agricultural land. A good example is the system developed by the Chilean company, Biofiltro, based on the physical and biological processes of greywater and blackwater treatment based on worms and microbes that do not generate waste, but instead, transform the residues into worm earth, an organic fertilizer ideal for soil regeneration44.

The Drinking Water Cycle

Legend

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Glaciares

Raw water reservoirs Drinking water aqueducts Mega ponds Drinking water treatment plants Buried Water Tanks Elevated Water Tanks Wells Sewer System Sewage Treatment Plants Biosolids Treatment Plants Mining Land Use Agricultural Land Use Urban and industrial Land Use

Social Operative Infrastructure

26) Aguas Andinas, Glaciares y Cuencas Andinas, Olivares-Maipo-Mapocho, hielos en Peligro, (2019), 46, https://sustentabilidad.aguasandinas.cl/documents/33547/34784/Libro+Digital+GLACIARES+Y+CUENCAS+ANDINAS.pdf. 27) Inventario Público de Glaciares, Dirección general de Aguas, Ministerio de Obras Públicas, DGA (2022), https:// dga.mop.gob.cl/Paginas/InventarioGlaciares.aspx. 28) Yuli Castillo Avalos, “Caracterización de la Hidrología Glaciar de la Cuenca del Río Maipo mediante la Implementación de un Modelo Glacio-Hidrológico Semi-distribuido Físicamente Basado” (Ms diss, Santiago, 2015), https://repositorio.uchile.cl/bitstream/ handle/2250/132835/Caracterizacion-de-la-hidrologia-glaciarde-la-cuenca-del-rio-maipo-mediante....pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 29) Shaw, Thomas E., Genesis Ulloa, David Farías-Barahona, Rodrigo Fernandez, Jose M. Lattus, and James McPhee. “Glacier Albedo Reduction and Drought Effects in the Extratropical Andes, 1986–2020.” Journal of Glaciology 67, no. 261 (2021): 158-69. doi:10.1017/jog.2020.102. 30) “Hasta en un 75% podría disminuir el aporte de caudales glaciares al río Maipo”, Centro de Invstigación Cetaqua, Sep 3, 2020, https://www.glaciareschilenos.org/notas/hasta-enun-75-podria-disminuir-el-aporte-de-caudales-glaciares-alrio-maipo/ 31) Aguas Andinas, Glaciares y Cuencas Andinas, 46. 32) Rene Garreaud. Impacto de la Variabilidad de la Línea de Nieve en Crecidas Invernales en Cuencas Pluvio-Nivales de Chile Central. Sociedad Chilena de Ingeniería Hidraúlica, XI Congreso Chileno. Santiago Chile (1993):19 33) Rene Garreaud, Análisis: La altura de la isoterma 0°C durante tormentas en Chile Central, May 24, 2017, https:// www.cr2.cl/la-altura-de-la-isoterma-0c-durante-tormentas-en-chile-central-por-rene-garreaud/ 34) Patrick Geddes, Goetechnics and The Valley Section, https://patrickgeddestrust.co.uk/geotechnics/ 35) Aguas Andinas, Memoria Anual, (2017), 18, https://www. cmfchile.cl/sitio/aplic/serdoc/ver_sgd.php?s567=567fd769a55cccfc190f29b0a16417e6VFdwQmVFOUVRVEJOUkVFeVRXcFJkMDlSUFQwPQ==&secuencia=-1&t=1702497115 36) Aguas Andinas, Memoria Anual, (2017), 106. 37) “Mega Estanques de Pirque”, Aguas Andinas, accessed Dec 13, 2023 https://compromiso.aguasandinas.cl/mega-estanques-de-pirque. 38) The WHO defines “hard water” as containing over 120 ppm of calcium carbonate, and “soft water” that contains less than 60 ppm. Anything over 180 ppm is considered

“extremely hard water”. Water hardness in the Metropolitan Region varies from 210 ppm in Vitacura to 650 ppm in Colina. 39) Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Diagnóstico y Clasificación de los Cuerpos de Agua Según Objetivos de Calidad, Cuenca del Río Maipo (Julio 2004), https://mma. gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Maipo.pdf 40) Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios, Informe de Gestión Sanitaria (2020), https://www.siss.gob.cl/586/ w3-article-19432.html 41) Keller Easterling, Extra Statecraft, the Power of Infrastructure (New York: Verso, 2016), 1-23 42) Van Alstyne, Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). “Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy”, Harvard Business Review 94, no.4: 54. 43) Stephen Graham, Splintering Urbanism, 8-36. 44) Nicolás Valencia, “La historia de cómo Medellín convirtió sus tanques de agua en verdaderos parques públicos”, Archdaily, accesed Dic 20, 2023. https://www.archdaily.co/ co/787787/la-historia-de-como-medellin-convirtio-sustanques-de-agua-en-verdaderos-parques-publicos 45) Diagnóstico y Clasificacion de los Cursos y Cuerpos de Agua según Objetivos de Calidad. Gobierno de Chile. Julio 2004, https://mma.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Maipo.pdf

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

25) The Water Cycle, October 2, 2022, https://www.usgs.gov/ special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-cycle.

INES DUSSAILLANT How to rethink water to respond to the socio-environmental challenges of contemporary urbanization

specializing in its solid state, walking on ice, measuring its changes and studying its behavior. Understanding WHY it is important. A glacier has become for me much more than just a piece of ice that provides contrast to a spectacular landscape. The message it gives me is too loud and clear not to hear: The past actions and decisions of our species have caused an imbalance in the natural equilibrium of our planet. If we do not accept our mistake and reevaluate our future actions and decisions in EVERY aspect, planet Earth will no longer be a pleasant place for us to live in. We are responsible for our survival. How to rethink water in the face of the present changes in climate in a city like Santiago? or anywhere else? The challenges are and will be multiple. But listing those challenges is useless if you don’t first believe in the problem. That’s precisely what most worries me. I could use this space to describe why we have to rethink our cities, but I am convinced that we already know that. Water will be rethought when we collectively believe that water needs to be rethought. Once we have taken this (extremely difficult) first step, we will realize that we already have the intelligence, the technology, the capabilities and the ideas necessary to do the right thing. What we lack is just courage and conviction. It is simple, in the face of any crisis such as, for example, the current and future water availability crisis in the Central Andes, we have two options: we can deny the problem or we can see the opportunity that exists in doing something about it. We prefer to deny because we are afraid to leave our well-established habits and take the step towards an unknown reality. Yes, surely many people were afraid to believe that the earth turns around the sun, but only a person like Copernicus with the needed courage and conviction was enough to change the worldview of an entire era and demonstrate that the world does not end just by changing the reference point. The opportunity is within our reach to ensure access to water in our city and make it more livable in the face of the challenges that desertification brings. We can make it a greener city with more parks and gardens designed with integrated water collection systems and native plants adapted to the local climate, species that require little water and that at the same time provide important ecosystem services such as temperature control, rainwater capture, attract pollinators and increase the precious biodiversity. We could thus, little by little, restore the natural balance

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water is wise. I have been exploring the importance of this element for some years now,

that we have broken in our city and that is so important to make it resilient to extreme conditions. And then what about us, we as well need to fill the void we have created in our urban lives disconnected from nature. We can inhabit our great cosmopolitan city placing greater emphasis on the local level, giving sense of belonging. Only when we feel that something belongs to us will we truly take care of it. To achieve this, we have to reconsolidate small neighborhood communities to take responsibility for the caring of their green areas and their common spaces, let them once again take ownership of their surrounding environment. Examples that have proven to be hand items. Both people and nature gain by sharing the gifts in reciprocity. At a more communal level, good examples are improving non-motorized transportation routes and public transport. All of this helps generate an urban environment that is both socially friendly and ecologically functional, including the water cycle. And all this, in an economically profitable way. There are places in the world where this has already begun. Does Chile have the courage to take the leap and change the worldview of “development”? Yes, we can show the world that the extractive and consumerist visions are obsolete and we can be an example to follow for a new paradigm. We have everything we need. We just need to believe it and do it. I haven’t talked about water, but water and ice have taught me all this. That we are adaptable. It has taught me to take the shape of the container that contains me and learn to take care of it: my body, my neighborhood, my city, my country, my planet. To leave individualism and reconnect with the subtle and powerful balance of nature. At the end of the day, a single drop cannot form a river and reach the sea. What we need are more people daring to be a little more like Copernicus.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

very efficient at the local level are urban gardens or collection and redistribution sites for second

Social Operative Infrastructure

03. Drinking water rights of the Metropolitan Region

• Water as a property right • 1981 Modification of the Water Code • Classification of Drinking water rights / Nature of water • Classification of Drinking water rights / Exercising of rights • Surface water rights • Groundwater rights • Classification of Drinking water rights / Water uses • Water consumption for sanitation • Losses, limitations and restrictions on the use of water • Recommendations

Annex: María Arquero Dispatch from the water wonderland

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

• Water Legislation

Water as a property right Chile is the only country in the world with explicitly private ownership of water use rights46. In the 1980s, Chile followed Margaret Thatcher’s example of privatizing basic services to develop the Chilean economy with external resources. Article 24 of the 1980 Political Constitution of Chile declares that “The rights of individuals over water, recognized or in accordance with the law, grant the owners ownership of it.47” In 1981, the Water Code of Chile was published, establishing that “Water is a national asset for public use and individuals are granted the right to use them, in accordance with the provisions of this code.48” The code specifies two categories of rights, consumptive and non-consumptive, generating a water market where the use of water can be bought, sold, and mortgaged as a common or community asset. Consumptive water rights refer to fully consumable water for any activity, such as agriculture business models or the supply of drinking water for human consumption. On the other hand, non-consumptive water rights imply that the owner can use the water but cannot consume it, being obliged to return it to the original source from which it was extracted, as in the case of hydroelectric generators. The extraction or restitution of waters is always to be done in such a way that it does not jeopardize the rights of third parties over the same water in terms of its quantity, quality, substance, opportunity of use, and other aspects49. Based on this regulatory body, in Chile, water has been understood as a communitary asset through the so-called water market. Water rights holders could use or not use the rights; allocate them to other purposes of their choice; transfer them separately from the land to be used in any other site; or commercialize them through typical market negotiations such as selling, leasing, and mortgaging. These rights became ownership titles, working as a key instrument to safeguard investments in agricultural projects and hydroelectric generation. These business models generally require significant investment capital with longterm results, where legal certainty is key. In 1999, during the government of Eduardo Frei, water rights were consolidated as private

property rights, converting the Metropolitan Public Water System (EMOS) into the private company “Aguas Andinas”. The latter currently operates, maintains, and owns the entire water infrastructure of the city of Santiago, serving over 7 million people. Aguas Andinas is currently a subsidiary of the French company Suez. In France, the water system has been characterized by a coexistence of public and private management. Private companies such as Veolia and Suez control 60% of the water market of the country under lease contracts (affermages), making the private operator responsible only for the operation and maintenance of the water infrastructure, while the main investments for infrastructure are the responsibility of the municipalities.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water Legislation

Water rights in Chile are governed by the DFL 1122 Water Code, which has undergone several modifications. To adjust the water market and avoid speculation of rights, among other issues, a Water Code reform bill entered Congress in March 2011. This was recently approved in April 2022 after 11 years of processing through Law 21.435. Among the most significant changes, it is worth mentioning that water resources are granted the character of public interest, safeguarding its use for humans and protecting its origin by prohibiting the constitution of rights over glaciers. Likewise, perpetual ownership over water is eliminated in exchange for temporary use concessions. With this, the concept of “free disposal” for “the exercising” of water rights is modified, reinforcing the character of the resource as a national asset for public use50. The adjustments mentioned in the Water Code look to adjust the water market and avoid speculation of water rights as commercial assets that stemmed from the Code’s origins in the 1980s, where water right holders would have the right to, among other things: use them or not, for any activities or types of uses that they wanted; transfer them separately to the land to which they corresponded, to be used on another site; commercialize them through negotiations typical of the market such as selling, renting and mortgage them. The concessions were granted with few regulatory standards, allowing complete freedom for the use of water in question, through a water market. Classification of Drinking Water Rights / Nature of Water In order to understand water rights in Chile, it is important to consider the nature of water described in the basis of the Water Code: “Land water is surface or underground. Surface waters are found naturally within the view of humans and can be flowing or still. Flowing waters drain through natural or artificial channels. Still waters are accumulated in natural or artificial deposits such as lakes, lagoons, swamps, ponds, tanks or reservoirs. Underground waters are hidden underground in darkness”51.

The population of Santiago is supplied with surface and underground waters thanks to the aquifers of the Maipo and Mapocho rivers, of which 92% (17 million gal/min, or 1.087 m3/s) is surface and 8% (1.5 million gal/min, or 94.1 m3/s) underground, adding up to a total of over 18.5 million gal/min (1.181 m3/s). Many of the surface sources of water extraction are carried out in the mountainous area at the foot of the Andes over the 3000 fasl (900masl) level where treatment plants are located. Above this level, the extraction process is facilitated by the generally exposed water flow through glacial rivers. Under the 3000 fasl (900 masl) level, underground extraction for agricultural uses and human consumption prevails, sharply decreasing surface extraction. This is due to the urbanization, allotments, streets, and highways that limit and contaminate the water bodies and diminish the possibility of extraction from natural channels of rivers, as they adopt an urban character under the morphology of water infrastructures like canals, aqueducts, or similar typologies. At the regional level, there needs to be more supervision of all existing wells, and a deficiency in frequent monitoring. This implies that the concession of extraction or consumption rights of underground sources needs to be supervised based on a precise estimate of aquifer volume and its variation over time.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

1981 Modification of the Water Code

Social Operative Infrastructure

66 Sum, tem est, odi repereiciam re commoditia sus aut ut id eveles autestrum quatiur re vent qui doleni reres.

Water Use Rights

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

(WUR)

Legend

Superficial WUR

Underground WUR Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg)

92 % 1028.7 m3/s 8% 94.1 m3/s < or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

According to the list of rights granted by the General Water Directorate (GDA) in the Metropolitan Region, over 6,000 property rights for surface and underground water have been granted to individuals in the Maipo River basin. As mentioned, water use has been classified into two main groups: consumptive rights for the consumption of water and nonconsumptive rights that allow for water use with obligatory restitution. Surface water rights Of a total of 16.3 million gal/min (1028.7 m3/s) of surface rights granted, 89% (14.5 million gal/min or 916.1 m3/s) are granted as nonconsumptive rights, and 11% (1.8 million gal/ min or 112.6 m3/s) as consumptive rights. A large part of the non-consumptive surface rights are concentrated above the 3000 fasl (900 masl) to 9800 fasl (3000 masl) level of the Maipo River and its tributaries (Volcán, Colorado, and Yeso rivers). This is because this type of right seeks to take advantage of level changes for hydroelectric power generation before its final extraction, having to return it to the environment before extracting again for human consumption, agriculture, or other downstream destinations. On the other hand, the 1.8 million gal/ min (112.6 m3/s) of water granted through consumptive surface rights correspond mainly to water from the Maipo River. This channel has an annual average of 1.4 gal/min (90 m3/s), fluctuating between seasons, ranging from 950,000 gal/min (60 m3/s) from March to August and then gradually increasing to 3.8 million gal/min (240 m3/s) between September and February, forming a curve that depends mainly on the accumulated snow and its respective melting from spring. The Mapocho River, on the other hand, registers an average flow of 95,000 gal/min (6 m3/s), contributing a lower proportion of water to the total rights granted. Consumptive surface water rights are equivalent to 1/10 of non-consumptive rights, from which we could infer that a cubic meter of water intended for human consumption or agriculture has recirculated several times (almost 9) before its final extraction.

Superficial rights are also classified according to the exercise of the right: eventual or permanent. The eventual rights may be exercised once the permanent rights have been satisfied. Groundwater Rights In terms of underground water rights, those of a consumptive nature prevail: of a total of 2.23 million gal/min (140.74 m3/s) of rights granted to date, almost 100% (2.22 million gal/min or 140 m3/s) are of a consumptive nature and less than 1% (7449 gal/min or 0.47 m3/s) are non-consumptive. Almost all of the underground rights are located in the western sector of the Metropolitan Region, where water is extracted through deep wells to supply areas that have mainly agricultural land use or support supply to vertical water ponds for human consumption. It is important to clarify that today, when there is the feasibility of drinking water and sewerage from the sanitation company in an urban area, it is challenging to request water right through a well based on the argument that having supplied the sector, the need to own a right of extraction is unreasonable. On the other hand, to date it has not been possible to develop profitable underground hydroelectric generation projects.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Classification of Drinking water rights / Exercising of rights

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water Use Rights

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Superficial

Legend

Superficial and non consuntive WUR Superficial and consuntive WUR Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg)

89% 916,1 11% 112,6 < or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

In terms of underground water rights, those of a consumptive nature prevail: of a total of 2.23 million gal/min (140.74 m3/s) of rights granted to date, almost 100% (2.22 million gal/min or 140 m3/s) are of a consumptive nature and less than 1% (7449 gal/min or 0.47 m3/s) are non-consumptive. Almost all of the underground rights are located in the western sector of the Metropolitan Region, where water is extracted through deep wells to supply areas that have mainly agricultural land use or support supply to vertical water ponds for human consumption. It is important to clarify that today, when there is the feasibility of drinking water and sewerage from the sanitation company in an urban area, it is challenging to request water right through a well based on the argument that having supplied the sector, the need to own a right of extraction is unreasonable. On the other hand, to date it has not been possible to develop profitable underground hydroelectric generation projects.

Classification of Drinking water rights / Water uses Currently, the expiration of water rights appears in the modification to the water code established in Law 21.435. It clearly defines the rules by which the expiration of water rights will be exercised, either through the payment of patents for non-use or even the eventual extinction and impossibility of their transfer if the original uses for which said rights were requested in the first instance have not been respected. This is a key point, as since 1981, water rights were requested with a specific use in the General Directorate of Waters (DGA). However, these uses were easily modifiable through an affidavit, making it difficult to trace the uses to date and hindering good management of the use of water resources. According to the information provided to the public by the DGA, for 2020, the uses and their respective consumptions to date are: •

Drinking/ Domestic/ Sanitation: 8.9 million gal/min (56.05 m3/s or 5%) consumptive

•

Industrial or Hydroelectric Power use: 12.4 million gal/min (780 m3/s or 70%)

•

Largely non-consumptive

•

Irrigation: 1.1 million gal/min (71.04 m3/s or 6%) consumptive

•

Other uses: 3.4 million gal/min (216.39 m3/s or 19%) largely non-consumptive

Social Operative Infrastructure

Groundwater Rights

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Water Use Rights Underground

Legend

Undergound and Non-consuntive WUR Undergound and Consuntive WUR

Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg)

0,74 1% 99.3 99%

< or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Water Use Rights Nature of Water and Exercise of Rights

Legend

Superficial and Non-consuntive WUR Superficial and Consuntive WUR Undergound and Non-consuntive WUR Undergound and Consuntive WUR Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg)

916,6 81% 112,6 10% 0,74 0% 93,6 8,3% < or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Water Use Rights Uses

Legend

For Drinking/ Sanitary/ Domestic Use Industrial and Energy Use Irrigation Use Other Uses / Not Defined Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg)

56.05 5% 780 70% 0% 71.44 6% 216.37 19%

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

In terms of Drinking water rights declared as other uses or without specification, these were replaced by Industrial or Hydroelectric power use for the following applicants: Aes Gener (ex Chilectra), Alto Maipo, Energía Coyanco, Eólica Monte Redondo, Hidroeléctrica Los Almendros, y Colbún.

First 25 drinking water rights We can see from analyzing the 25 water rights in the Maipo River basin that those with the highest flows are associated with hydroelectric power. These rights are largely nonconsumptive and are located in the riverbeds and their tributaries from an elevation of 3000 fasl (900 masl) upwards.

Social Operative Infrastructure

According to the information provided by the DGA, there is a large percentage of rights specified with other uses or without information in this field. To better delimit this document, Drinking/ Domestic/ Sanitation is defined as all rights granted to the following applicants: Procesadora Aguas Claras, Aguas Andinas, Sembcorp Aguas Chacabuco, Aguas Cordillera, Brisaguas, Empresa de Servicios Sanitarios Aguas Colina, Aguas Santiago Poniente, Aguas Manquehue, Aguas San Pedro, Aguas de Las Lilas, Sembcorp Aguas Lampa, Aguas Santiago Norte, Sembcorp Aguas Santiago, Aguas Batuco, Aguas Substratum, Inversiones Aguas Claras, Aguas Pirque, Esval, y Essbio.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Water Use Rights Use of the 25 Consuntive WUR with Higher Flow Volume

Legend

Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg) 95 47%

25 Higher Consuntive WUR

108 53%

The Rest of Consuntive WUR

< or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Consuntive WUR For Drinking/ Sanitary/ Domestic Use Industrial and Energy Use Irrigation Use Other Uses / Not Defined

Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Water Use Rights Use of the 25 Non Consuntive WUR with Higher Flow Volume

Legend

Water Use Rights Flow Volume (m3/seg) 25 Higher . Non-consuntive WUR

753 82% 167 18%

The Rest of Non-consuntive WUR

< or = to 50 m3/s < or = to 100 m3/s < or = to 150 m3/s < or = to 200 m3/s < or = to 250 m3/s < or = to 300 m3/s < or = to 350 m3/s

< or = to 368.6 m3/s

Non-consuntive WUR

Industrial and Energy Use

Other Uses / Not Defined Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

Today, there is a significant loss of water on the route through urban water networks, which is mainly associated with the deficit in the quality of the infrastructure and its maintenance. The level of unrevenue water (UNW) in the Maipo River basin, understood as losses; that is, the difference in the volume of water that enters the distribution system versus what is finally billed, has remained high in recent years, reaching 33.4%52 in 2020. On the other hand, the Maipo River basin has limitations and restrictions on the use of water, such as restrictions on underground extraction within an area of over 60% of its total surface. Of this, 15% present a declaration of superficial depletion, and 10% reserve decree. The underground restriction zone of the Maipo River basin is located in the aquifer located under the communes of Lo Barnechea and Vitacura. These are the communes with the highest consumption of drinking water in the entire basin (220-350 gallons/day, or 1-1.6 m3/ day)53, which is directly linked to the large area of private gardens and the grass area that must be irrigated54. It is important to consider that these communes are located to the northeast of Santiago, near the foot of the Andes, where groundwater reserves are more “stocked”. Given its location, this sector of the city is the first to receive and consume water from wells, and there is a serious risk of a decrease in levels of the “downstream” water table with consequent damage to the rights of third parties. Likewise, the problem of high water consumption rates is accentuated in this sector, given that its surface water supply comes from the Mapocho River, which, unlike the Maipo basin, does not have backup dams. Areas with emergency flows are located in the north and southwest of Santiago, in areas of a strong agricultural nature, where the lack of alternatives for obtaining water means that water reserves are needed to supply water to the population.

Definitions according to DGA/MOP55: 1- Restriction areas of underground excavation: The declaration of restriction areas for underground water is a mechanism used by the General Directorate of Waters (DGA in Spanish) to protect the Hydrogeological Sectors of Common Use (HSCU or SHAC in Spanish) where there is a risk of decrease in water levels, threatening the rights of third parties established there, or when technical reports from the service show that the sustainability of the aquifer is in risk. Once reported, the DGA can only issue provisional rights. 2- Areas declared depleted: The declaration of depletion is a mechanism used by the DGA to signal that a natural source of surface water (river, lake, pond, or other) no longer has available water resources to constitute new water use rights for surface water that are consumptive and to be permanently exercised.This declaration does not prevent the constitution of new non-consumptive or consumptive rights of eventual exercise. 3- Reserve Decrees: The reserve decree is a faculty of the President of the Republic that allows, through a well-founded decree, to reserve the resource for the supply of the population because there are no other means to obtain water, or, in the case of requests for non-consumptive rights and exceptional circumstances and national interest. For the foregoing, it is possible to provide for the partial denial of request for exploitation rights under the application process. 4- Groundwater prohibition zone: The declaration of a prohibition zone is a mechanism through which the DGA protects the sustainability of an aquifer. Unlike the restriction area, this declaration occurs when the availability of the water resource is fully compromised, both definitively and provisionally. For this reason, it is not possible to establish new exploitation rights.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Losses, limitations and restrictions on the use of water

6- National System of Wilderness Areas Protected by the State (SNASPE): These are publicly owned areas administered by the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), whose objective is to protect and manage natural, terrestrial, or aquatic environments for their conservation. The General Directorate of Waters has established a formal procedure to address requests for exploration and constitution of water rights in these areas. At the national level, there are 101 SNASPE units divided into three categories: National Park, National Reserve, and Natural Monument. 7- Ramsar Sites: Wetlands are subsystems integrated into a hydrographic basin that provide essential ecosystem services, being a refuge and reproduction area for many species that often face conservation problems. Likewise, they play a vital role in the supply of drinking water, in the control of natural risks, in the development of basins for groundwater recharge, in mitigation of climate change, and, in general, of the hydrographic systems that support important economic and social activities. Its high fragility is associated with both natural and anthropic causes, with drainage activities, excessive grazing, or alteration of the water regime having the greatest impact on these ecosystems. As a measure aimed at safeguarding natural ecosystems, in Ramsar Sites, it is not possible to authorize water explorations or establish groundwater use rights without previously having a favorable environmental evaluation.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

5- Protected aquifers: Consequently, these aquifers are prohibited zones for groundwater by the sole merit of the law.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Water Use Rights

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Restriction Zoning

Legend

For Drinking/ Sanitary/ Domestic Use Industrial and Energy Use Irrigation Use Other Uses / Not Defined

Underground Excavation Restriction Zones

Áreas of Depletion Declaration

Emergency Flow Zone

Agricultural Land Use

Mining Land Use Regional Administrative Division Maipo River Basin

“The constant flux of this urban process is constituted through many superimposed, contested and interconnecting infrastructural ‘landscapes’. These provide the mediators between nature, culture and the production of the ‘city’. There is the ‘electropolis’ of energy and power. There is the ‘hydropolis’ of water and waste. There is the ‘informational’ or ‘cybercity’ of electronic communication. There is the ‘autocity’ of motorised roadscapes and associated technologies. And so on. Importantly, however, these infrastructural ‘scapes’ are not separated and autonomous; they rely on each other and co-evolve closely in their interrelationships with urban development and with urban space.56” Graham, Marvin, Splintering Urbanism,

New Institutionality The urban and agricultural condition of the Maipo River basin requires the creation of a new institutionality that makes it possible to govern the infrastructures, resources, and planning processes of the associated urban settlements. Today, the jurisdictions collide since the General Directorate of Water does not have competencies in matters of territorial ordering to define areas where there is water availability, operating in a manner superimposed on urban planning supplying basic services but disassociated from its current spatial organization and future development. A similar situation is found in agricultural land use areas, where the Sanitation Services Superintendence has no jurisdiction over Rural Drinking Water (APR). This new institutional framework must not only ensure the supply of drinking water for the current urban and demographic scenario of the Maipo River basin. Still, it should also operate in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing, Agriculture and Transportation to promote, among others, the following: 1) the establishment of new urban growth zones, assigning densities, urban growth restriction zones, and ecological preservation zones, based on the sectorial availability of water, taking into account the accumulation capacity of ponds, aqueduct flow, extraction capacity of wells associated with the ponds, pump capacity and diameters of potable water

networks; 2) fostering and promoting the development of public spaces, green areas, and recreational activities within bodies of water, both in raw water catchment sectors and in areas for restitution of recycled or processed gray water to the environment.

Dynamic rights and greater investment in dams Currently, water rights apply as long as the river is above its ecological flow, defined as the volume of water that allows the preservation of ecological values in the channel itself. However, this presents the problem that only surface values are considered, ignoring groundwater levels or simply assuming that these are recharged annually and in a balanced manner. On the other hand, since 2014, the calculation of the ecological flow has been updated along with the incorporation of the ecosystem services of the channels to recognize these minimum levels to be conserved, advancing from a consideration of an ecological flow of ten percent of the annual average, to now consider the ecological flow as fifty percent of the ninety-five percent probability flow, for each month57. After analyzing the different types of water rights, the restrictions and regulatory changes to the Water Code, it seems pertinent and necessary to implement a system of dynamic use and enjoyment based on telemetry, which allows maintaining the information on surface flow applicable to both rivers by the DGA at various points to measure their surface flow, such as wells to measure their static and dynamic level. Concerning private companies, the obligation to monitor the effective consumption of both surface water extractions and underground wells by private parties should be promulgated. This technological change, together with a modification in the form of water rights, replacing the exact amount (gal/min or m3/s) with a percentage of the total existing flow, will allow a harmonious development in the set of parties in a dynamic way, where the alteration of flow will proportionally affect the reduction or increase of the effective right on the channel, allowing the maintenance of the minimum ecological level, such as organizing the reserve in times of heavy rain.

Social Operative Infrastructure

RECOMMENDATIONS

46) “Ingeniería UC, Noticias”, “Estudio identifica a Chile como el único país con expresa propiedad privada de derechos de agua”, accessed December 2023, https://www.ing.uc.cl/ noticias/estudio-a-92-constituciones-identifica-a-chile-como-el-unico-pais-con-expresa-propiedad-privada-de-derechos-de-agua/ 47) Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN), “Decreto 100: Fija el texto refundido, coordinado y sistematizado de la Constitución Política de la República de Chile”, Artículo 24, last modified November 2023, https://www.bcn.cl/ leychile/navegar?idNorma=242302. 48) Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN), “DFL 1122: Fija Texto del Código de Aguas”, Título 2, Artículo 5, last modified September 2023, https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/ navegar?idNorma=5605 49) Ibíd. Título 2, Artículo 12-14. 50) “Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN)”, “Ley 21435: Reforma El Código de Aguas”, modificación artículo 5 y 6, last modified July 2023, https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/ navegar?idNorma=1174443 51) Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN), “Decreto 100: Fija el texto refundido, coordinado y sistematizado de la Constitución Política de la República de Chile”, Título 1, Artículo 2, last modified November 2023, https://www.bcn. cl/leychile/navegar?idNorma=242302. 52) Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios (SISS), Informe de Gestión del Sector Sanitario (2020), 8. 53) Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios (SISS), “Información sobre consumos de agua potable en el país”, accessed in Diciembre 2023, https://www.siss.gob.cl/586/ w3-article-19615.html 54) Sergio Espinosa, “Estudio revela que la mayoría de las áreas verdes en las ciudades chilenas son privadas”, El Mercurio, July 8th, 2018, https://estudiosurbanos.uc.cl/wp-content/ uploads/2020/01/IMG_1481.jpg 55) Dirección General de Aguas, “Limitaciones y restricciones al uso del agua”, accessed in December 2023, https://dga. mop.gob.cl/limitacionrestriccionagua/Paginas/default. aspx#siete. 56) Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, Splintering Urbanism Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition (London: Routledge, 2001), 8. 57) Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN), “Decreto 71: modifica Decreto nº14, de 2012, que aprueba reglamenteo para la determinación del caudal ecológico mínimo”, last modified January 2015, https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/ navegar?idNorma=1073494&idVersion=2015-01-15&idParte=

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

In this way, under a proportional scheme based on a pro-rata water resource, we can be more cautious of the preservation of the channel in its entirety, and where all users are forced to extract less water resources, incorporating a flexible and dynamic system to the annual seasonality of the rivers.

María Arquero Dispatch from the water wonderland “Water throughout history has been perceived as the stuff which radiates purity: H2O is the new stuff, on whose purification human survival now depends. H2O is a social creation of modern times, a resource that is scarce and that calls for technical management... Water can no more be observed; it can only be imagined, by reflecting on an occasional drop or a humble puddle.”

Dwelling in the heart of the Great Lakes Region, in what Indigenous Peoples call Waawiyatanong, where the water goes around, these words resonate vividly. Early colonizers first explored the region through its boundless waters, mapping, appropriating, and remaking their discovery forever. Wars to control the strategic outpost were carried through these same waters, and the heavy industrialization that forever transformed the region was, too, enabled by the fluid matter. Water was everything and everywhere, until her presence became elusive. First, the land was lotted, owned, and built upon. Technological progress brought water on demand to each property and helped dispose of it once used through a vast network of pipes. In and out, in and out, in and out. Wetness was drained, making more land possible. Streams were tamed and jailed into larger underground pipes, making more property above them possible. And with more urbanized land, more pipes and sewers, flooding, and pollution. The commodification of water brought the need for more infrastructure, larger every time, more efficient, and invisible. And never enough. By the late 1960s, rivers catching fire were not exceptional occurrences. Water dreams became water nightmares. Over a century, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) service area grew to cover over 1,000 square miles, serving around three million people in dozens of suburban communities that consolidated as the City of Detroit emptied. With just one wastewater treatment plant to handle such a massive combined system in a racially segregated region, water became yet another marker of injustice. By 1977, the Environmental Protection Agency sued Detroit for violations of the Clean Water Act, and the city would be, for 37 years, under federal oversight. During those years, the system continued to grow with 2,700 miles of water mains, 3,000 miles of sewer water collection, and a vast network of pumps and Combined Sewer Overflow facilities only noticeable when they fail. In 2016, the Community Research Collective at We the People of Detroit published Mapping the Water Crisis: The Dismantling of African-American Neighborhoods in Detroit. The work visualized how water shutoffs due to low-income households’ unpaid water bills had further aggravated the tax foreclosure crisis that had decimated entire historic neighborhoods in

Social Operative Infrastructure

—H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, Ivan Illich

Detroit. The research documented thousands of houses in Detroit with no water access and residents facing evictions, displacement, foreclosure and even losing custody of their children. Despite the City’s temporary moratorium on water shutoffs starting in late 2014, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs for Water and Housing accused the city of human rights violations after their visit the same year. And yet, the state of water infrastructure is a source of much concern throughout the State of one of the states with the most lead lines nationally. In 2014, the case of Flint made the headlines, prompting one of the largest public health crises in recent history. Guided by the politics of austerity, the state-appointed emergency manager disconnected the city from the DWSD system and started withdrawing water from the Flint River. The decision exposed thousands of children to drinking water with high levels of lead for months. The City of Benton Harbor came next, with several years of high water lead levels before any decisive action was taken. In every case, environmental justice communities were at the center of the struggle. In 2023, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson celebrated the return of the 1963 green-and-white Water Wonderland license plate to pay tribute to the 60-year mark of the Walk to Freedom in Detroit during the civil rights movement: “The new plate will serve as a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to achieve full equality and justice for all.” Yet, for the activists and water warriors working with front-line communities in the State, there is no need for a reminder. That year, Michigan ended the multi-year prosecution for the Flint water crisis without convictions, and water shut-offs restarted in Detroit after the COVID-19 pause. Climate uncertainty is also doing its part. Every summer, more intense and frequent precipitation tests the outdated water utilities to capacity. Plans for sustainable water models and green infrastructure to aid the grey underground network are only slowly taking shape. There is so much to do. And yet, can we dare imagine a water wonderland for all? Beyond expediency, rates of return, and political calculations, are we ready to activate the designers’ cultural agency and instigate socioenvironmental action? If we are to claim the emancipatory power of design to co-produce more just water futures, let’s start by building allies and joining efforts with the very communities at the forefront of the struggle… Because we need water to dream of our cities as a dwelling place, from Santiago de Chile to Detroit. “For not only does the way an epoch treats water and space have a history: the very substances that are shaped by the imagination – and thereby given explicit meanings – are themselves social creations to some degree… The water I speak of is the water needed for dreaming city as a dwelling place.” —H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, Ivan Illich

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Michigan, not just in Detroit. The Natural Resources Defense Council situates Michigan as

04. Option Studio (Harvard GSD, Fall 2019)

Social Operative Infrastructure

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Santiago’s metropolitan drinking water network supplies more than 6,500,000 people in the 5,950 square miles (15,400 square kilometers) that the metropolitan area covers. Its distribution network reaches 8,240 miles (13,300 kilometers) in an urban area of more than 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares). Water collection infrastructures in raised water tanks have been selected as case studies. They are distributed across various communes and share common characteristics, such as the urban conditions in which they were originally built and the development of the neighborhoods that have been consolidated around them. What were once areas on the urban limits of Santiago, today we find a large number of water tanks within low-density neighborhoods, with repeated characteristics, among which we can find the following: 1) Extensive enclosures. Many areas are closed off with security measures to impede access, being hermetic towards the street and city. Even though access to these sites has to be controlled due to its operative requirements, how these borders are defined is translated into negative conditions for neighborhoods, both in their immediate surroundings, such as unused streets, and in their internal functioning of disconnected neighborhoods. 2) Surface use. In the case of vertical water tanks, also known as cups or towers, and the installations associated with their operation, networks, stations, or wells require no more than a third of the site’s area (in the case of semi-buried tanks, occupation can reach 80% of the site’s area). The remaining area is left as vegetation or used for parking. 3) Accessibility. There are many opportunities to access the sites from the neighborhoods due to the contrast between the site’s area (approximately 0.5 acres or 2000 m2) and the small sites surrounding them. This allows us to consider the opportunity to develop new accesses independent of those necessary for the operation.

4) Social landscapes. Previously, families lived on sites now used for water collection tanks. The head of the family would be the guardian of sanitary equipment. This meant that areas not used for water functions were often used as large productive gardens, and we can still see remnants such as fruit trees and ornamental vegetation that, without irrigation, possibly survive due to leaks within the site. 5) Water. In the internal process of management and maintenance within the site, there is excess water that could be used for productive or recreational purposes for the local communities.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Generic Conditions of the Operative/Non-Operative Sites

In a multidisciplinary study with the Center of Ecology, Landscape, and Urbanism and the Territorial Intelligence Center of the Adolfo Ibáñez University, an analysis was undertaken of all 200 sites with water collection operations, both elevated and semi-buried water tanks belonging to Aguas Andinaas in the Metropolitan Region. For this, both operational and obsolete tanks were considered to understand the totality of units to order them through quantitative criteria. Each site was analyzed according to an index of territorial wellness, IBT43, whose criteria consider many variables, from which twelve indicators were taken and grouped into three: 1) size and basic infrastructure of existing housing; the size of accessibility according to indicators related to green spaces, and equipment related to sports, culture, health, public services, and education; 3) environmental indicators based on heat indicators and vegetal cover. Using these indicators of habitability, along with urban characteristics, 34 sites were chosen that, after being evaluated as operative, were reduced to 6. These were considered to be the most appropriate to intervene, given their urban, operative and social character. Site location La Victoria, Pudahuel Estanque Florencia, Cerro Navia Las Parcelas, Peñalolén Lo Blanco, La Pintana Estanque La Pincoya II, Huechuraba

IBT 46 43 57 43 40

The Territorial Wellness Index (IBT) is a measuring tool developed by the Territorial Intelligence Center (CIT) in Chile to evaluate the level of development and quality of life in different regions to identify strengths and weaknesses between regions and orient public policies and territorial planning. The IBT is based on the idea that wellness cannot only be measured economically. Instead, it also depends on social, cultural, and environmental factors. It comprises 57 indicators grouped into six dimensions: economic, social, environmental, cultural, institutional, and territorial wellness. Point systems are developed taking into account the average of indicators and a coefficient of the relative importance of each variable to arrive at a calculation between 0 and 100, increasing with higher territorial wellness.

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Selection of Sites using the Territorial Wellness Index

1 2

Social Operative Infrastructure

Well-being Index Zoning

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

(WIZ)

Legend Zoning according to territorial well-being index (WBI), on the metropolitan area of Santiago: High WBI

Medium WBI

Low WBI

Socioeconomic Segregation Zone

Elevated Water Tanks Buried Water Tanks 1.La Victoria, Pudahuel 2.Florencia, Cerro Navia 3. Las Parcelas, Peñalolén 4. Lo Blanco, La Pintana 5. La Pincoya, Huechuraba

Title

100

Población en un radio de 1,500 m Población: 98.518 Pop. Población de niños: 21.632 Pop.

101

Firstname Lastname

La Victoria Pudahuel

102

Protein

Ui Jun Song

This project uses a strategy based on a 60-day rotation cycle. It proposes a structure superimposed onto the tank, defining a radial design for producing proteins based on the health of animals, soil quality, and family interaction, particularly children. The proposal is based on a strategy to bring together living and non-living elements for mutual benefit. These interactions transform the space from mere infrastructure to a farm, museum, botanic garden, and park. Education, food production, water demand, and public space can be simultaneously satisfied as a new form of occupying hydraulic infrastructures for space for community recreation.

103 Top: the infrastructure defines a neighborhood center and enables new urban relationships.

Bottom: the infrastructure and its production processes.

Diagrams showing species interaction, production metrics, and operating conditions.

Schedule of processes, seasonal patterns, and species

Interaction and symbiosis

Diagram of protein production over time

108

Vertical Farm

Warwin Davis

This project proposes a vertical farm, attaching a structure to the tank, using a parametric species distribution following orientation and atmospheric conditions of light, shade, and humidity. The interior is a center for research, agriculture, and a cooperative, providing an administrative structure to the proposal, where neighbors, universities, and the water company form an organization for local development.

109 Urban analysis of social inequalities

110

Diagram of actors present at the site for the organization of cooperatives.

111

Social Operative Infrastructure

112

Types of production units for medicinal crop harvesting.

113

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti The cooperative’s production systems strategy.

114

Young Elerly Square

Kimberley Huggins

This proposal uses the existing sports infrastructure in the neighborhood as a starting point to build a local development initiative oriented towards local recycling through the articulation of children and adults around sports and environmental education. The proposal uses shared spaces with existing infrastructure to build resting places and recycling and compost areas, allowing for the reduction of household waste that currently reaches 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) daily per person.

This community will be self-run and funded by the local municipality and Aguas Andinas, both of which benefit financially from a preventative health aspect of the program. Local health centers will utilize the urban fabric to encourage members to exercise the daily recommended amount. Members’ heart rates will be monitored with wristbands and discussed once a month with a nurse stationed at the water tank. This will create a node of activity that spans the water tank site, the soccerfield, the church, and the school, all of which will agree to open their gates during the day. The senior members will collect, recycle, and transform waste into better shared space and decreased municipal costs.

115

STAKEHOLDERS This community will be self-run and funded by the local municipality and Aguas Andinas, both of which benefit financially from a preventative health aspect of the program. Local health centers will utilize the urban fabric to encourage members to exercise the daily recommended amount. Members’ heart rates will be monitored with wristbands and discussed once a month with a nurse stationed at the water tank. This will create a node of activity that spans the water tank site, the soccerfield, the church, and the school, all of which will agree to open their gates during the day. The senior members will collect, recycle, and transform waste into better shared space and decreased municipal costs.

Learning Landscape

Funding Partners Government and Aguas Adinas

Health Partners & Monitors Weekly Check-ins & Events

Stakeholders diagram and their relationships in the neighborhood.

Extension

Learning Landscape

CPA School & Church Participate in daytime open space

Extension Elders & Children Various ability levels enabled with tools

CPA School & Church Participate in daytime open space

Elders & Children Various ability levels enabled wit

URBAN ECOLOGIES

116

Chile’s population demographic is changing rapidly, with the projected percentage of over-60s making up 32.9% of the total population by 2050. This is unfolding in the context of poor public policies to deal with an ageing society, a building typology that encourages isolation, and a decreasing household size. The common perspective of seniors is that they are almost entirely unable, however 75.9% report being independent and in good to excellent health. By deploying elements that enable seniors to shape their urban space, they can build stronger ties, decrease waste management needs, and increase urban vegetation.

2019 Seniors make up 15.7% of pop.

Decreasing Household Size 5.4 people to 3.3 people on avg.

2050 Seniors make up 32.9% of pop.

Confined Gardening Desire Guerilla gardening in sidewalks

Urban ecologies associated with elderly groups.

Biggest Municipal Financial Burden 0.54-2.09 kg of waste/hab/day

METRICS

0:00

6:00

117

Time spent alone increases with age, reaching more than half the waking hours by the age of 60+. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a good measurement of increasing chances of isolation. By examining the daily schedules of kids and working adults in the neighborhood, it is clear the seniors could interview social opportunities with kids before and after school as well as adults late at night. These interwoven programs can be framed in context of health and waste management issues. This studio project suggests that seniors can take control of local waste management, produce healthy soils, use them to activate open dirt patches, and spend time with youth.

12:00

21:00

ELDERS

School KIDS

ADULTS Commute to Work Daily rhythms as social opportunities

Non-Communicable Diseases

Common Diseases

Only supplies 191,000 pesos/ month = only 30% of monthly living cost of patient with dementia

86.1% of elderly in baseline tier 69.8% are middleto-low income Seniors in Baseline FONASA

COMPOST CALENDAR

75.9% Independent Excellent to good health

21.8% Diabetes 18% Depression 17.2% Osteoporosis

Solidarity Pension System

Independence

WASTE

HEALTH

62.1% Hypertension 0.4% More than six 22% Two chronic diseases 35.7% One chronic disease

8.7% Stroke 11.9% Paralysis 36% Dementia Dependency

48% of waste is organic material

Mean Solid Waste

10% only recycled (86% by informal collectors) Mean Solid Waste

Compost cycle every 2 months

Fruit & Vegetable Harvest

Ideal Tree Planting J

Green Compost Material (Nitrogen) - Fruit & Vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, green leaves

Diagram of metrics regarding activities, occupation, and temporality among the elderly.

1 Brown Compost Material (Carbon) - Mulch, dead leaves, sawdust, twigs, paper

118

The first design move requires careful punctuation into the existing walls and the construction of operable boundaries. These boundaries will be opened during the day and closed at night. The waste management program saves the municipality on their waste management costs (their biggest financial burden) and slowly produces soil. New walls within the soccer field and water tank site then become the armature within which soil and topography is built. This topography is intended to create challenging spaces for seniors and children while also building up access to vegetation for the neighborhood. A new soccer field, learning landscape, forest, and rooftop pond are introduced with a raised road to encourage free movement of the temporary food market into the new spaces.

s& las s, G stic per Pla Pa Ve rm

ico m

po st

Site of Soil Production and Arrival

Rehousing Tank Infrastructure & Compost Heat Recovery to School

Urban context strategy.

iles st P po

m Co

Existing Wall Punctuation & New Operable Walls

Waste Management Type relative to Solar Orientation

Programs: Soccer Field, Learning Landscape, Forest & Rooftop Pond

Slow City: Raise Road inline with Sidewalk & Allow Market in Plaza

Social Operative Infrastructure

SITE DESIGN

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The introduced walls at the water tank site are eventually filled with topography built by bringing the compost carts to the site. Eventually the topography builds up enough to allow for people to access the rooftop pond and buries the health and water infrastructure programming inside. The void inside the water tank is converted into a library and large reading room within which social programs can also be hosted to aid seniors struggling to afford requirements. Small punctuations in the highest ring of the tank bring in light to play against the utilitarian concrete structure and create a beautiful space to inhabit inside. This is a gathering site that acts as the center of the larger community.

Diagram of protein production over time

119

WATER TANK

120

Population at a radius of 1,500m Population Child population

84.431 Pop 84.431 Pop

121

Florencia Cerro Navia

122

Ecological Machines

Simon Escabi

This proposal is a park and plant nursery that is open to and operated by the community, aiming to consolidate a process of urban tree planting for the local neighborhood. Two processes are developed on the site: soil restoration using the vegetation grown in the nursery and tree planting for the city. Both configure places of recreation during the ecological development proposal. Time and growing processes transform the park areas, where trees grow and change position during their stages of germination, growth, and maturing.

4000 masl

2900 masl

2000 masl

540 masl

1540 masl

710 masl

880 masl

1880 masl

FOR NEIGHBORHOODS IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE.

ABOUT SANTIAGO

123

The city of Santiago is located on a low point on the skirts of the Andes mountain range. This basin situation which results in a lack of wind currents during most of the year, coupled with a low precipitation average produces the prefect conditions for a high count of air pollutants. The air pollution situation has become so dire that one of the most distinctive features, which is the mountains of the Andes, is made invisible by a cloud of smog that covers it during almost half of the year. This has taken a toll on its citizens and is a constant public health concern. N NNE

NNW

PARTICULATE MATERIAL

NNW

WEATHER

ENE PUDAHUEL

3.2%

1.7% 1.6% 1.7%

7.3%

10 km/h

50 g/ m3

WIND SPEED

100 g/ m3

2.9%

0 km/h

0 g/ m3

2.9%

2.9% 1.3% 1.2% 3.3%

PARQUE OHIGGINS

TEMPERATURE

100 g/ m3

30°C 50 g/ m3

7.1%

20.6%

ESE

WSW

16.9%

22.5%

0°C

0 g/ m

EL BOSQUE

PRECIPITATION

100 g/ m3

200mm

50 g/ m3

SEP

NOV

OCT

JUL

AUG

JUN

MAY

FEB

APR

MAR

JAN

DEC

SEP

NOV

OCT

JUL

AUG

JUN

MAY

APR

FEB

JAN

pm 2.5 pm 10

ABOUT AIR POLLUTANTS The pollutants in the air vary greatly in source and in type. Although greenhouse gases are the most talked about components of pollution another signiﬁcant and extremely dangerous element is particulate material. With sources like dust, pollen or combustion these airborne particles get stuck in the lungs of mammals and create a high risk for illness. Particulate material is divided into three main categories which are PM10, PM5 and PM2,5. These are particles that have a diameter of 10, 5 and 2.5 micrometers respectively.

SOURCES

COMPARATIVE SIZE

Pm RELATED ILLNESS TRESHOLD Interim target-3 (IT-3)

70 g/ m3

Interim target-2 (IT-2) Interim target-1 (IT-1) Soot Dust Pollen Metals Combustion particles Organic compounds

40 g/ m3

Air quality guideline (AQG) 10 g/ m3

Beach sand grain Human hair Pm 10 Pm 2.5

“As thresholds have not been identified, and given that there is substantial inter-individual variability in exposure and in the response in a given exposure, it is unlikely that any standard or guideline value will lead to complete protection for every individual against all possible adverse health effects of particulate matter. Rather, the standard-setting process needs to aim at achieving the lowest concentrations possible in the context of local constraints, capabilities and public health priorities. ” WHO Air quality guidelines

Analysis of air pollution and its factors in the city of Santiago

These are the lowest levels at which total, cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality have been shown to increase with more than 95% confidence in response to long-term exposure to PM2.5.

In addition to other health benefits, these levels lower the risk of premature mortality by approximately 6% [2–11%] relative to theI T-2 level.

In addition to other health benefits, these levels lower the risk of premature mortality by approximately 6% [2–11%] relative to the IT-1 level.

These levels are associated with about a 15% higher long-term mortality risk relative to the AQG level.

DEC

0mm

0 g/ m3

SSE S

MAR

SSW

Social Operative Infrastructure

124

Strategy pilot sites based on socio-environmental conditions.

125

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Top: Layout based on environmental wind and solar exposure patterns.

Bottom: detail of the socio-ecological machine

C au sari na eq ifolia uiset

ia on ins rk Pa lea acu

10m

hra

ea ca

NG ILTERI ER F ATT EM AT UL IC T R PA

ustic

decandr

a WA TE R

ipula

nnatist

ora pi

passifl

DANT PEN DE

S BER IM CL TIVE NA

126

Cordia

Senna multiglandulosa

Trachelospermu

m jasminoide

E TIV NA

ON TI TA ES

Alveolate leaf

RE FO R

m Peu

nus

cera

sifera

bold

Liq

uid

acr

Nothofagus

macrocarpa

sm fagu tho No

Seedlings are planted in a small part of the plot and the rest is opened to human use while the seedlings become saplings and have to be moved to occupy the rest of the plot.

Top: Species and zone rotation system.

SAPLING CULTIVATION AND HUMAN USE.

The plot is closed oƘ for a period of one year while the biomass decomposes and it is left to grow wild for new rood systems to help restore the soil’s natural balance.

platan

SOIL REGENERATION

Trees are grown until their DBH attains 18 to 20 cm. The remaining wholes are ﬁlled with vegetal material harvested from the biomass production plots.

pseudo

TREE GROWTH AND HARVESTING

Acer

The plot rotation will occur in two types of patterns: complex and simple. The simple rotation plots are the ones that are not protected by small grass phyto-ﬁlters. These ﬂuctuate between tree production and biomass production and soil regeneration. The complex, which are protected, will include a third step in which the plot can be utilized by humans during the period in which the saplings are growing in a limited amount of space.

oca

r pa

ABOUT CROP ROTATION

Pru

UR BA N

Acicular leaf

nsis

s chile

cedru

Austro

Bottom: organization of production and recreation areas.

Social Operative Infrastructure

Th un

ber gia

Lit

Ipom ea indi

The species have been selected for diƘerent purposes. The phyto-ﬁltering species have been picked out because they have a number of characteristics that make them the most eƛcient at particulate material capture. Acicular and alveolate leaves and high wax or pubescence content. The other trees are low water consumption native trees and a set of exotic trees that have proven to work on urban environments.

30m 25 m 20m 15m

ala ta

ABOUT THE TREE SPECIES

bus Pinus stro

VIEW B

127

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Vegetation-based filtration strategy and its spatial organization

Xiano He Bi

learning landscapes as social infrastructure

Here, a strategy is developed using circular material, defining new social infrastructures for and by the community, such as adventure playgrounds. This responds to a need for more public space and education areas of growth through experimentation.

Social Operative Infrastructure

128

Ecological Play:

CONTINGENCIES/METRICS

I would like to transform the school yards and public spaces in this neighborhood into a system of learning landscapes comprised of habitat gardens, adventure gardens, and food gardens. The adventure garden encourages the social, emotional, and cognitive skills developed through play. The habitat gardens function as places that enhance the understanding of ecosystem components and food webs and encouraging multi-faceted environmental discovery. The food gardens are places that foster holistic understanding of food production and good nutritional practices and encourage intergenerational relationships growth in teamwork through food cultivation. The site around the Florencia water tower would include all three of those programs and function as the centerpiece of this system of learning landscapes.

Ecological Play: Learning Landscapes as Social Infrastructure

N AT

ION

AL N

AT U R

A L SCIE

N C E S C U R R I C U M LU M F O R E L

ngs and

TA R Y

AND

MID

DLE

foo dw

nis

SOCIAL ACTIVATION creation of new public spaces attracting people through new programs

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ecosystem components and mechanisms food webs good nutritional practices

-m psy ch o

tive ep rpc pe

in susta

abilit

129

ap ply

a ch

fer ns tra

em syst eco

oto r

affectiv e ion

E LO

Ad op tio n

DE V

NITIVE SKILL S

al Dexte

L IA P Ne ract w ice Sk & ills M as te

w ollo &F

Manu

sh abli Est s le Ru

ive

se s

AL ,

CO G AND

esolution Conflict R

l cia so M ,E

N TIO

ENT

Ro le

co gn it e sen

O F C H I L D D E V E LO P M

e imaginativ

r ve co dis

e of fiv

E C TS

Comm unica t

record ASP

exp lore

the us

expr ess

ts lan

hu the man e n ac viro tiv nm ity’s en im t pa ct o

eb s

o ce an ort mp

soil

i the

T H E L E A R N I N G C YC L E

EMEN

nutritiona l practic es

ILE

living bei

food garden

habitat garden

COMMUNITY BUILDING gathering of people from all ages

SOCIAL OPERATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

adventure garden

o rati pe oo

tive crea

rity

CHILD DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES social imaginative psycho-motor

ECOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE catch and retain water

HOLISTIC LEARNING practice & master new skills communication skills cooperation

adventure garden

encourage the social, emotional, and cognitive skills developed through play; providing education through the informal and hidden curriculum

habitat garden

habitat for plants, birds, and butterflies; understanding of ecosystem components and food webs; encouraging multi-faceted environmental discovery; help students develop an intimate connection with the environment through awakening their curiosity, wonder, and critical thinking skills

food garden

holistic understanding of food production and good nutritional practices; fostering intergenerational relationships and encourage growth in teamwork through food cultivation

20-minute walk ! !

! Escuela Particular Espana

! Escuela Dr.Treviso

! Colegio San Fransisco Javier !

5-minute walk

Colegio Christian and Caren

! Cerro Navia Cultural Center

Escuela Provincia de Arauco !

Escuela Particular la Frontera

2-minute walk ! Biblioteca comunal Cerro Navia

! Escuela Bas Part Centro Educacional Sn Pablo

! Parque Cultural Cerro Navia

! Escuela Herminda de la Victoria ! Jardin Infantil Los Angelitos

Florencia Water Tower

! Escuela General Rene Escauriaza

! Escuela Republica de Italia ! Escuela Particular Carlos Pezoa Veliz ! Escuela Leonardo da Vinci !

! Consultorio Cerro Navia ! Escuela Particular Robert Kennedy

! Oficina Cerro Navia

! ! Cerro Navia Women’s Center !

! Colegio San Damian de Mokolai

Escuela Membrillar

Escuela Particular Monte Grande

Escuela Alexander Graham Bell ! Escuela Charles Diurna

! Escuela Presidente Roos-

! Escuela Republica de Croacia

evelt

!!! ! ! !

27 SITES FOR POSSIBLE INTERVENTIONS 33500 SQM/360590 SQFT AREA FOR POSSIBLE INTERVENTIONS 1122 STUDENTS AFFECTED

Top: learning contingency metrics

Bottom: urban analysis of strategic opportunities

Social Operative Infrastructure

130 Analysis of actors and their spatial relationships in the neighborhood

131

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Urban connection strategies through learning

Social Operative Infrastructure

132 Top: site relationship dynamics.

Bottom: community relations through the project.

133

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Implementation and transformation over time.

134

Santiago Napkin City

Benjamin Hackengerger

This proposal deals with an open lab for an absorbent city. The operative site is used along with fiscal sites such as roundabouts and tension line sites. Through low-consuming green corridors, ‘absorbent’ units complement the hydraulic operation with sports, environment and social spaces.

Right: Runoff analysis of the metropolitan area.

RUNOFF CITY

HYDROLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE VALLEY OF SANTIAGO REVEALS A COLLECTION OF DIFFERENT WATERSHEDS, INCLUDING A CREASE DOWN THE CENTER OF THE VALLEY THAT DRAINS A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE TERRITORY. RUNOFF FROM INDIVIDUAL SHEDS CAN BE CHANNELED AND CAPTURED TO IRRIGATE A MORE ROBUSTLY PLANTED PUBLIC REALM.

135

02. HYDROLOGY

03. DISTRICT

136

COLLECTIVE WATER MANAGEMENT

AT THE SCALE OF A NEIGHBORHOOD THE OVERALL TOPOGRAPHY OF VALLEY IS CONTRADICTED BY THE ENGINEERED DRAINAGE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD’S STREETS. BECAUSE THIS AREA IS FLAT AND RECEIVES VERY INFREQUENT RAIN, THERE IS NO FORMAL STORMDRAIN NETWORK IN THE AREA. THIS MEANS THAT DURING THE FEW YET INTENSE RAIN EVENTS THAT SANTIAGO SEES EACH WITHER, INTERSECTIONS ARE WATERLOGGED UNTIL RAINWATER EVAPORATES OR SEEPS THROUGH CRACKS IN THE PAVEMENT. THESE INTERSECTIONS ARE SEEN AS POSSIBILITIES FOR COMMUNITY RAINWATER MANAGEMENT.

Definition of a neighborhood water management district.

04. TYPOLOGY

137

DELAYING + SPREADING WATER

THE NAPKIN CITY CONCEPT SUGGESTS A STRATEGY OF SPREADING WATER ACROSS THE CITY’S FOOTPRINT, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY IT ATTEMPTS TO SMOOTH THE UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION OF WATER OVER TIME. SANTIAGO RECEIVES ALMOST ALL OF ITS 170 MILLION CUBIC METERS OF RAINWATER EACH YEAR BETWEEN MAY AND AUGUST. THE CONCEPT ALSO AIMS TO ABSORB WATER LOST IN STANDARD LEAKS AND DURING THE ANNUAL TANK CLEANING, DURING WHICH THE WATER TOWER MUST BE ENTIRELY EMPTIED. THIS “KIT OF PARTS” OF THE PROJECT OUTLINE DEVICES THAT HELP DIVERT AND DELAY WATER, FROM CHANNELS AND MICROTOPOGRAPHIES THAT SPREAD WATER IN MINUTES TO SOIL LENSES AND CONSTRUCTED AQUIFERS THAT CAN DELAY WATER FOR UP TO 2 AND A HALF MONTHS. AUXILIARY TANKS COULD ALSO BE DEPLOYED TO STORE WATER FOR LONGER PERIODS. THIS WATER IS DISTRIBUTED AND DELAYED HORIZONTALLY AND IN SECTION TO SUPPORT DEEP ROOTING TREES.

Strategies for accelerating and slowing down runoff.

05. STAKEHOLDERS

THE NAPKIN CITY BRINGS TOGETHER INTERNATIONAL CITY GOVERNMENTS, AGRICULTURAL MINISTRIES, AND ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS TO CROSSPOLLINATE RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION OF NEAR-SURFACE WATER RETENTION IN ARID LANDSCAPES. THESE INSTITUTIONS PROVIDE FUNDING FOR DESIGN, THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEST CASES. AGUAS ANDINAS, THE METRO GOVERNMENT OF SANTIAGO, MUNICIPALITIES, AND LOCAL UNIVERSITIES COLLABORATE ON MAINTENACE AND MONITORING OF SOIL HUMIDITY AND VEGETAL HEALTH.

138

ENACTING THE NAPKIN CITY

06. SITE READING FLORENCIA

Top: Actors for an engrossing city.

THE FIRST TEST SITE IS ‘FLORENCIA’, IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CERRO NAVIA. THIS IS ONE OF THE LARGEST SITES IN THE STUDIO AND IS FORMALLY INTERESTING BECAUSE IT CONTAINS FORMAL ECHOS OF OTHER PARKS IN THE NORTHEASTERN COMMUNAS OF SANTIAGO. SEVERAL EXISTING RECREATIONAL PROGRAMS ARE CLUSTERED AROUND THE BOUNDARY OF THE SITE, INCLUDING A STRIP PARK ALONG TORRE DE PISA WHICH IS CURRENTLY INTERRUPTED BY AN INFORMALLY BUILT PRIVATE GARAGE AND IS CUT OFF FROM THE LARGER SITE. E F AND G HERE ARE TWO LOCKED SPORTS COURTS AND A KINDERGARTEN. AROUND THE SITE, THE PROGRAM IS DISPARATE AND LACKS A COHESIVE CENTER THAT COULD SERVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD. SINCE THE SITE IS CLOSED, VEGETATION IS NOT WELL CARED-FOR AND THE STUMPS OF FORMER STREET TREES LINE THE PATHWAYS. LEAKING INFRASTRUCTURE HAS ALLOWED FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VOLUNTEER SHRUBS AROUND THE WATER TREATMENT AND MONITORING BUILDINGS.

Bottom: reading of local conditions.

09. EXPERIMENTS

139

MINI NAPKIN

Local-scale testing prototypes.

Social Operative Infrastructure

140

Población a un radio de 1.500m: Población: 81.671 Hab. Población de niños: 17.155 Hab.

141

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Las Parcelas Peñalolén

142

Loo-Plantation

Yuru Ding

A waste management process is proposed to produce fertilizers and biomass that go on to be used in hydroponic cultivation, proposed as an alternative income initiative for the community to strengthen the local economy. Directly related to weekly markets developed along the Avenida Consistorial, the community would manage their waste as part of the proposal. Spatially, this is organized according to slopes that distribute the various processes such as vermiculture, compost, vertical gardens, and recreational public spaces.

143 Analysis of urban ecologies for community composting and tree planting.

144 Contingency and metrics analysis.

Implement Strategies

Eﬃciency

Collect & Reuse Waste through Designed Artifacts

CO2

Promote Tidiness of Community Streets

ibutor lizer Distr ree) Ferti Shared(F gn ampai ling C rer Recyc u fact s anu eed gW re anu

F anic Org

M izer ertil

M d ar Pe Ve ke tM ge tR tat an ot ive tin ur e gF Ga rde ru its n Kit De ch b ris en Sc rap Pu s bli cC on tain Crit er ter s& Wo rm s Check up R outin e Light & Moisture

Publ i

Housewives Vegetable Growers / Sellers Weekend Market Owners

lantatio cP

rogram nP

Public Property Maintenence Services

micomp er

er Resou at

rce

System

Department of Agriculture

t os

Bro

Materials wn

rbon) (Ca

Underground Pipe

Department of Urban Planning

Agua Adinas S.A.

Kingdergarden Elementary School High School College

p um

P Air

Str

aterials ( nM

gen) tro Ni

Gre e

as Water Tan

Aguas Andin

Public Welfare Developers

Small Business Administration Environmental Resources Start-up Company

ied &

Civil Engineers

Cr us he Ha dL y ea ve Thic s k Wit Corn here P a / Dri per d ed F Stems lowe (B r Sta roccoli lks) /

o db

Department of Energy Energy Foundation Investors

Santiago de Chile Municipal Representatives

Decompose

Council of Environmental Policy Commercial Transportation Services Environmental ProtectIion Agency Ministry of Environment

STAKEHOLDERS Community Compost Transformation & Reuse For Public Plantation

Aguas Andinas S.A. is the biggest drinking water supply company in Chile where it serves more than 8 million people in the 15,403 square kilometers of the Metropolitan Area with a distribution network of 13,258 kilometer placed on 70,000 hectares of land concession. The company owns more than 230 drinking water tanks of operative infrastructure that work closed doors 24/7 in almost all the Municipalities of Santiago involvin all the socioeconomic stratum of Santiago. Based on the data from the company’s report we obtain an average of 0.25 cubic meters per inhabitant in Santiago de Chile for the year of 2017. And it is the each inhabitant, from various workplaces, socioeconomic levels and life styles, as primary or secondary stakeholder, ensures that the project is constructively involved their desires and aspirations in an appropriate way.

The Mobility of Public Space for The Elderly

Enhance Neighborhood Connections Recycling Policy Making & Communication

Usability of Public Infrastructure for Children

Collect & Analyze Data Identify Local Problems

Enrich Social Culture

Design for Compost Reuse in Communal Spaces # 1: # 2: # 3:

Deﬁne Community Size

Improve Local Problems

Diversify Materiality

Construction of Public Facilities

Waste Recycling & Reapplication

Prioritize Implement Strategies

Collect & Reuse Waste through Designed Artifacts

Maximize Resource Eﬃciency CO2

Promote Tidiness of Community Streets

utor izer Distrib ree) Fertil Shared(F gn ampai ling C rer Recyc factu s eed gW r nu Ma

Org

Department of Agriculture

anic

ltry

u Po

Pe t

n You

use

anu

rho

te gh

Slu

rM ilize Fert

Stakeholders relational map

1 2

Community Members Sustainable Development Organiztions Sustainable Development Organiztions Designers

3 4

Department of Urban Planning

145

ry M ult Po

Community Members Sustainable Development Organiztions Sustainable Development Organiztions Designers

n You

use ho ter

Slu

Department of Agriculture

COMMUNITY RELATIONS Community Compost Transformation & Reuse For Public Plantation

Giving the water network operated by Agua Andinas at Las Parcelas, the project is designed upon recognition of water infrastructure, as a site mark, and an indispensable resource for a well-performing residential district. Instead of positioning water as a physical element in design, the site is intervened to be a park that multifuntions as both a waste recycling and reuse portal as well as a public green space for social involvements to be cultured, at encounters of neighbours, freinds and families while they actively participate in waste collection and vermicultured processes. It’s hopeful that this underserved community then can be recharged into a lively convening to explore materialty from eftover and garden scraps to pet manure. The site is transformed into a three layered park where composes an exclusive waste collection point for 12 community blocks and a public waste distribution point for weekend market near the major avenue, a transparent and semi-opening space to cultivate vermicompost in the back corner of the site, and a privileged-for-public green streetscape running through the entire space. It’s conceivable afterwards, for community members to apply transformed waste into fertilization of green house vegetables, experimental venue for street tree seedlings, as well as a living presentation to inspire the youth while preserving a sustainable lifestyle and generating vigorous aura for social lives

Las Parcelas Avenue (Major Traﬃc)

146

Social Operative Infrastructure

Existing Trees

Flora

Eucryphia cordifolia Cav. Deciduous / nectar “ulmo honey” Height: up to 12m Native Frequent

Anopterus glandulosus Tasmanian laurel Height: Up to 10m (Small Tree) Native Frequent

Aristotelia chilensis

Deciduous / Chilean wineberry Height: Up to 5m (Small Tree) Native Frequent

Drimys andina

Shrub / White Petals Height: 1.2m Native Frequent

Avenida Consistorial Weekend Market

Layers of Spatial Functionality 1

Waste Collecting & Sorting for Community Blocks (inclusively)

Waste Collecting & Sorting for Weekend Market (inclusively)

3 Entry / Exit

3 5 4

2 Entry / Exit

Community Vermiculture Distribution & Vermicompost Stock (exclusively)

Public Green Space

7 8 9 10 11 12

Entry / Exit

Overview of community relations and their implementation at the site.

147

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Terrain dynamics and implementation scenarios.

Wei Wu

Urban typologies of the block and its intermediate voids are studied to develop a new proposal of rigid and flexible borders that open a percentage of the water collection sites to new uses for the community along with the exploration of a new nucleus of craft. The project is based on lightweight enclosures such as woven branches that allow for flexible and seasonal limits based on geotextiles to separate spaces and generate shade. When these end their lifecycle after some years, they are incorporated back into the earth as organic material.

Social Operative Infrastructure

148

No Boundary Square

CONTINGENCIES / METRICS

149

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Free fairs are part of the cultural heritage of Chile. In them, families and fruits are supplied with fruits and constitute the main means of commercialization of small farmers to access the final consumer

Wednesday, Saturday Thursday Sunday Tuesday Friday

total de ferias libres on Chile

1114

fruits

31.8%

numero de puestos

113,112

vegetables

49.6%

numero de feriantes

340,000

potatoes

6.9%

numero promedio de puestos por feria

166

fish

2.8%

venta promedio mensual por puesto

$1.5 million

others

8.9%

venta promedio mensual por feria

$254.8 million

Map of street markets in the city of Santiago.

CITY ANALYSIS

150

field pattern study

The infrastructure elements of the modern ity, by their nature linked together in open-ended networks, ofefer another example of the field conditions in the urban context. A complete examination of the implications of field conditions in architecture would necessarily reflect the complex and dynamic behaviors of architecture’s users, and speculate on new methodologies to model program and space _ Stan Allen

Blocki sland (Maipu)

U shape (Maipu)

Network nodes (La Reina, Las Condes)

Between lines (Pedro Aguirre Cerda)

Triangle form (Pedro Aguirre Cerda)

residential building as surrounding object to define a small public space

residential building define open space, which connects to street in one wing.

enlarge transportation nodes and offer a territory to contain street activities

gap between neigbor building can be desgined as gathering space

triangle land can always have a small corner for open field

One actived shelter (Puente Alto)

Urban lines (Renca)

Hallway (Huechuraba)

Cross (San Bernardo)

Chain (Maipu)

single actived shelter in a open land can be as a centripetal point of open field

thin urban lines can not only be a identity of fabrication, but also a linear open space

space within the buildings can be a hallway to a larger open space

using residential building as surrounding object to generate a small public space

various of small open spaces connected by certain chain

Filter condition (San Miguel)

Blocks connection (Maipu)

Contour to infrstructure (Cerro Navia)

Along with street (Estación Centra)

yard to park (La Reina)

landscape on the boundary perform as a filter from the street to the center

connect two or more blocks to generate a small public space connecting them

soft contour line bring friendly open space connecting to water tank

street as linear boundary to generate enlongate public space

open the private yard of residential building to connect to big park

Analysis of urban patterns.

b us sta ti on

bues stopt

Pa lena st reet food m a rk et k id s p la y g r ou n d

street market

m a t e ri a l s t o rga e

co m m u n i t y o f f i ce

151

plant nursery

basic frame wood column and coconut fiber mesh

recycled coconut fiber

COMMUNITY RELATIONS The site connects itself to the community throug four sides boundaries. one is dealing with temporary street market happening every Wdnesday and Sunday. one is about using planting nursery to prevent the risk of flood from main street, one is for water tank security, and last one is for adjacent residents buildings. Through the whole operative process, local people are main participants. Also, such a physical process help to generate thevisible identity of the area when time passing.

Aguas Andinas are committed to developing our business ensuring the sustainable development of their key stakeholders.

this boundary ican be used as the space of entertainment and social gathering for residents.

coconut fiber recycling system happening here can also provide profit for the operation of whole ste

small plant nursery programbuilt-up by local community and earn the profit by selling it to locapublic space

¬ )UHH IDLUV DUH SDUW RI WKH cultural heritage of Chile. In them, families and fruits are supplied with fruits and constitute the main means of commercialization of small farmers to access the final consumer

The proportion of green spaces and agriculturally used area in Penalolen, substantially decreased from 53.9% to 49.9% between 1993 and 2002 and to 48.1% between the years 2002 and 2009 - resulting in a total loss of green spaces of approximately 5.8% or 767 km2.

The built-up areas, with various building densities and streets, in turn increased from 31.1% in 1993 to 38.9% in 2002 and 42.3% in 2009.

Top: parts and components strategy.

bus stop wait area is corporated with street market from time to time

Bottom: community relations through the project.

152 Diagram of actors and their spatial relationships.

SITE DYNAMICS / SCENARIOS

153

using sustainable material to generate operative boundary is my main strategy of this project. It derived from the initial street market based boundary to all four boundaries, then to blur those boundaries. The wood will be used at the very begining of the project, for basic frame of the whole operative system, then the coconut fiber net is used to enclosed the wood frame units, both at the sides and ceiling. So main goal is that those mesh can be easily moved from the static wood frame, and recycled within the site, and distribute to the plant nursery and later new coconut fiber purchase.

Iteration 1 street market + partion of trees sale +local art exhibition + urban garden

Iteration 2 street market + large bus stop +pond to public +community social event

Iteration 3 street market +event in urban garden + residents party event

Iteration 4 street market + open coconut fiber recycling process + community event

Iteration 5 street market + urban garden to public celebeation + art exhibition

Iteration 6 street market +event in urban garden + residents party event

Top: Spatial dynamics and scenarios.

Bottom: Occupancy scenario view.

154

Población a un radio de 1.500m: 43.852 Hab. 10.517 Hab.

Picture: Nicolas Kersting, 2019

Población: Población de niños:

155

Lo Blanco La Pintana

Leilei Wu

This project proposes revitalizing an unused area through a network of concentric paths defining interlinked rings that multiply intersections and pedestrian relations. This structure organizes the development of a mental health community center and family health center, where therapy is undertaken within open, flexible spaces, including sports, amphitheater, and playground areas.

Social Operative Infrastructure

156

Therapeutic Square

Substance Consumption in Chile

This initial research reveals the issue of substance consumption in Chile. Due to Chile’s geographic location, the country has become a popular transit and destination for drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. In 2018, the police force seized 1797 tons of processed marijuana, 1389 tons of pasta base and 556 tons of cocaine. The metropolitan area of Santiago had the highest drug arrest of 1192 case. The country is also struggling to find out that the user group has moved to young adults between 14-24, of which about 16% claimed the use of Marijuana. While substance consumption is a persisting issue in the country, every year only 7000 out of the 16 million drug addicts are treated through a rehabilitation program.

CHILE AS TRANSIT AND DESTINATION COUNTRY FOR DRUGS

DRUG ARRESTS IN 2018 Number of Arrests

Main drug seized per region in kg Cannabis procesada

142 334 227

Mexico

194

Venezuela

Colombia

251

Ecuador

418

Peru COCAINE

1192

Bolivia

223 355 465

Chile

168 118 109 26 32

Arica y Parinacota Tarapaca

Pasta base

7,000/yr drug addicts are treated

313

~16% students 14-24 age group use Marijuana

304

Antofagasta

611

Atacama

2561

Coquimbo

1594

Valparaiso

988

Metropolitana

2353

Maule

O’Higgins

556 Ton

138

Biobio

COCAINA

170

Araucania

1389 Ton

Los Rios

PASTA BASE

Los Lagos

1797 Ton

Aysen

MARIHUANA PROCESADA

Magallanes

LA PINCOYA

LA FLORENCIA

LA VICTORIA LA LAGUNA

+ +

LAS PARCELAS

LA PINTANA

HEALTH SERVICES SCHOOLS CRIME

IBT 10

100 0

Urban analysis of drug use.

2500m

5000m

10000m

157

CITY ANALYSIS

STAKEHOLDERS

The stakeholders map outlines who and what institutions are involved in drug rehabilitation process centered around the goal to heal the patient - Detoxification, Psychological rehabilitation, Social Rehabilitation, each expands to list out the organizations and individuals. In the diagram time is considered. According to the research, a complete rehabilitation takes at least four years. The diagram thus imagines a four-year program involving - first the hospital and physicians to detox. The psychological rehab is specifically cognitive therapy through water, considering a seasonal strategy since the properties of water depends on climate. The social rehab uses horticultural therapy in which plant materials that could be spatially combined with water therapy strategies.

JAN

YEAR 1

Drug Rehabilitation Program

APR

OCT

o ivati

cult

UNIVERSIT Y

158

I AT

FAMILY THERAPY

T LI

OCT

SUPPORT GROUPS

APR

N IO

D01

touch ouch

IC OG

TO DE

JAN

drug r g offenders o

landscape designer

psychologist

physician nutritionist

other patients

plant research

plant materials) herapy ( ltural t

PSY

u hortic

g/harvesting

D30

e) y (waterscap therap

pport family su

education

meeting group

D25

ng & nseli cou

heroin

e hadon met

hol alco

zepines zodia ben

DETOX CLINIC

y plantin

itive cogn

HOSPITAL

unit comm

JAN

employment

I IF

THERAPEUTIC WATERSCAPE YEAR 4

horticultural orticultu or tiicultura tura all therapy the th he pyy

D05 D10

O TI

APR

OCT

sound nd

Colegio Iberoamericano la Pintana

Mental health center, psychosocial programs, mental health of children and adolescents and adults, addiction programs for adults and adolescents, abuse and abuse reparation program, intrafamily violence program and prevention and health promotion programs.

CESFAM Flor Fernández Liceo Victor Jara

Diagram of stakeholders in relation to rehabilitation programs.

family health center, La PIntana municipality

YEARJAN 3

COSAM La Pintana

Municipalidad de La Pintana

OCT

Liceo D523 Parque Lass Americas

APR

1362 students

Centro Educacional Santa Rosa del Sur Liceo Simon Bolivar

YEAR 2

SITE PLAN

Programs and Water

The site is laid out to address three aspects: psychological rehabilitation, social integration and prevention. Programs are developed around the focus to help the patients through the therapy program while engaging the surrounding neighborhood. Waterscape and planting scheme are designed to activate the sensory experience and help cultivate a sense of belonging. Water from the water tank is released to feed water into the waterscape. Storm-water is also captured and cleaned for continuous water source for the water features.

Horticultural Therapy Meditation

Forest Bathing

159

Therapy Center

Wetland

Reflection

Sports Park

Prairie

PREVENTION R E H A B I L I TAT I O N

Maintenance

Water Theater

I N T E G R AT I O N O P E R AT I O N

WATER OPERATIONS

1 / CAPTURE 2 / CLEAN

3 / STORAGE 4 / RELEASE 5 / REUSE meditation pool

5000m3 electricity station

purification station

water tank

therapy room

1 bioswale

plant workshop

2 retention pond

Top: Spatial definition of rehabilitation, social integration, and prevention centered on the neighborhood.

cultivation

fountain play

reflection pool waterfall

Bottom: Water systems that structure the organization.

nursery/forest bathing

PRAIRIE

FOREST

SHRUB

SWALE/RETENTION

POND

CANOPY

CLIMBER

corryocactus brevistylus

nicotiana corymbosa

maytenus boaria

ephedra chilensis

stemodia durantifolia

nymphaea alba

acacia caven

lapageria rosea

friosyce aurata

acaena pinnatifida

muehlenbeckia hastulata

vicia ggraminea

junnelia scoparia

acaena magellanica

hydrangea serratifolia

ranunculus repens

160

DESERT

EDIBLE

crataegus monogyna

citrus limon

❽ ❾ ❿

⓳

❼

❻ ⓰

❹

❺ ⓫ ⓬

❷

⓳

⓮ ⓲

❶ ⓲ ⓱

❻

❸

⓯ ⓭

WATERSCAPE

THERAPY

❶ reflection pool

❽ therapy center

❷ touch pool ❸ puddle play pool ❹ lotus pond

❿ fruit cultivation

❾ plant workshop ⓫ nursery

❺ waterfall ❻ retention pond ❼ mist installation

COMMUNITY

LANDSCAPE

⓬ water theatre

⓰ prairie ⓱ desert ⓲ forest

paving

mulch

standing water

⓳ shrub ⓴ swale

colored paving

lawn

storm water

pervious paving

prarie

⓭ event pavillion ⓮ playground ⓯ skate park

15M

30M

tree shrub desert plants perennials acquatic plants

Organization plan and programs.

161 Views of the different areas and programs.

Sydney Perdigo

Here, a series of proposals are developed that deal with public-private initiatives to generate community-led projects based on the study of the existing water code and associated laws. These can become public policies for commune management or initiatives of the sanitation companies. A discussion between service companies that operate 24/7 and social necessities aims to convert a monofunctional system into a porous space, following a theory of ‘open systems’ proposed by Sennett.

Social Operative Infrastructure

162

Water Code

163

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Analysis of the various actors involved in water provision, organized by scale and impact.

Social Operative Infrastructure

164 Management alternatives and programs associated with water services.

165

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti Contingencies associated with water management.

166 The project cycle and its social experience.

167

Población a un radio de 1.500m: Población: Población de niños:

51.321 Hab. 16.445 Hab.

169

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

La Pincoya Huechuraba

Karissa Campos

This project proposes an indigenous Mapuche medical center based on three structural elements. Firstly, an escalated cultivation area close to La Pincoya lagoon, with a potential of 2000 acres (800 hectares) at the foot of a hill. Second, a production area at the intersection of four communes, Maipú, Pudahuel, Renca, and Cerro Navia, where 110,000 Mapuche people live. Third, a commercial area selling the products, close to the Cerro Santa Lucía, where there are 4 Mapuche pharmacies and 20 Mapuche organizations. The cultivation area around La Pincoya will work with the local school, defining it as a zone for ecotourism where visitors can personally pick their herbs and undertake medicinal treatments and rituals in Rucas built by the indigenous groups that would obtain concessions for 20 years.

Social Operative Infrastructure

170

Mapuche Medical Center

171 Analysis of the Mapuche community in Santiago and its spatial distribution

172 Territorial strategy and phasing.

173

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti City-hill relationship through a social integration plan.

Eucalyptus Globulus

Berberis Chilensis

Fuchsia Magellanica Chilco

Erodium Moschatum

Luma apiculata

Eucalyptus

Barberry

Lavandula Officinalis

Musk Stork’s-bill

Arrayan

Mentha Pulegium

Matricaria Recutita

Lavender

Pennroyal Mint

Chamomille

Insomnia

Hea

dac

hes

Reduce Fever

druf

Dan

Anxie

ruff

Dand

Ritual

Co Asthma

Nau

Nasal Congestion

tion

sea

Indiges

Ritual

Back Pain

Headac

hes

Muscle Pains Fever

Improve Appetite

Muscl

Drynes

174

e Sp

asm

Social Operative Infrastructure

Stomach Ache

Anxie

ty Re

ducer

Fever Reducer

Indig

nds Bronchitis

estio

tions

Liver Infec

Uterine Bleeding

Bla

rual

stio

fect

Nas

ion

Con

Sto

iver

Pains

Diarrhea

Menst

Pai

Inflamation

mac

Dia

rrhe

Arithric Pain

ping

Cram Stomach Ache

Stress Redu

cer

Stress Reducer

Schinus Polygamus

Sophora microphylla

Stress

Art

Huingan

Mayu

Peumus Boldus Boldo

Reduce

hiri

tis Plantago lanceolata

Drimys Winteri Canelo

Llanten

Oxalis sea

Culle Colorado

Lopageria Rosea Copihue

Cassia Stipulacea Chukuri

Lomaria chilense Cresta de gallo

Canal

Greenhouse Gardens Cultivation for viewing & for sale

Escuela Particular Santa Luisa de Marillac

These look ready to take to the production factory!

Elementary School

Local Shared ProductionSpace

Who wants to catch butterflies with me?

Acceso Norte Parque Huechuraba North Entrance to Huechuraba Park

This month’s production is much higher than the last!

Top: Illustration of Mapuche medicine.

Lets head this way to the main garden plaza!

Bottom: Proposal for neighborhood organization through acupuncture interventions.

175

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

I’m about to cook dinner! Get some herbs from the garden!

Fences? How do you view the new community garden!

I took mine down last week!

I’m about to cook dinner! Get some herbs from the garden!

Centro Misericordia Community Center

TO HUEC

HURABA

GARDENS

Which way to the gardens?

PB1607-Avenida Recoleta / Esq. Jacarandá Bus Stop

Top: Hill activation strategy.

Wei Dou

The proposal considers ten local schools to organize a communal productive garden, looking to promote a healthy food program for children with municipal funding. New sports infrastructures appear along the El Carmen canal that are used to finance the school organization. Urbanistically, the natural topography is used: a drip irrigation system is extended along the high, concave levels of the urban limits, that water the new forestation of endemic species of low-consumption, such as the Quillay and Algarrobo, that are proposed on Avenida Recoleta and other streets perpendicular to El Carmen canal.

Social Operative Infrastructure

176

Nutritional Educational Slopes

Site Analysis.

177

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure

178 Urban analysis of public health nutrition.

179 Criteria and problems associated with unhealthy eating patterns.

Spatial intervention typologies.

Social Operative Infrastructure

180

Master plan for La Pincoya.

181

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

182

Social Operative Infrastructure

05. Global Case Studies

183

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Annex: Daniel Ibañez Water as a resource, driver of design and right

Daniel Ibáñez

The recent DANA torrential rains and severe flooding that devastated Valencia, Spain, serve as a stark reminder of the fragility of urban systems in the face of extreme weather events. These events are increasingly symptomatic of the consequences of climate change, which intensifies the urgency of designing resilient water infrastructures. Both at the city scale and the larger territorial basins upstream. Water infrastructures, far from being mere conduits for resource distribution, function as metabolic organisms that intertwine ecological, social, and urban processes. Water, as Ivan Illich remind us, is not just a commodity but a mediator of social relations and an embodiment of natural cycles. A multifaceted and culturally embedded resource that challenges conventional technocratic paradigms. This broader understanding calls for a reimagining of water infrastructure as functional systems and as dynamic entities deeply integrated into the metabolism of cities and their ecosystems. Urban water management requires not only technical ingenuity but also an integrated understanding of natural and anthropogenic flows. Despite this common sense, contemporary cities have grown following an expansive logic of block-after-block lacking an integrative and ecosystemic view of urban planning and design. Instead, a framework for understanding how ecological processes can inform urban planning becomes of particular importance. Following Ian McHarg’s seminal work a Design with Nature it is fundamental to find a form of ecological planning that underscores the necessity of aligning urban growth with the natural hydrological cycles, as foundational to ecological urban landscapes. Specifically in Latin America, despite its abundant water resources, the region exemplifies also the disparities and challenges in water governance. With 31% of the world’s freshwater reserves, the region paradoxically faces acute water accessibility issues—as highlighted in the report’s analysis of the Maipo River Basin in Santiago de Chile. This river system demonstrates the complexity of integrating natural and artificial water cycles within urban contexts. Its gravity-fed infrastructure, dependent on snowmelt and glacial runoff, is a lifeline for over six million inhabitants but is increasingly vulnerable to climate variability. Prolonged droughts, glacial retreats, and shifting precipitation patterns necessitate a fundamental rethinking of water infrastructure to ensure long-term resilience. Water governance and the socio-political dimensions become as important as ecological planning for water systems. Building upon the work of Karen Bakker, she reminds us that water is

Social Operative Infrastructure

184

Water as a resource, driver of design and right

which to evaluate the governance structures underpinning water systems. The report’s analysis of inequities in water access—particularly the reliance on expensive, unregulated tanker services by marginalized urban communities—highlights the socio-political challenges of water infrastructure.

Different types of urban infrastructure systems related to water These disparities underscore the need for participatory governance models that democratize access conditions and urban renewal processes were analyzed and and foster equitable resource distribution as a right. In this light, the concept of polyvalent inframapped in 12 cities across the globe. Each project includes an structure, as proposed in the report, holds promise in addressing these issues by transforming water infrastructure system associated with water, according to the systems into multifunctional assets that integrate ecological restoration, social interaction, and following categories: freshwater provision, urban drainage syseconomic productivity. tem, urban sewage system, city channels, and the urban water The research agenda carried out in this report’s basin-scale water management advocates for cycle. The systems also had to provide an environmental, social, understanding and designing cities as integral parts of their surrounding landscapes. By situating or alternative contribution, such as the sustainable capturing water management within the broader hydrological and geographical context, the report underand treatment of water, flood risk reduction, mitigation of urban scores the need for adaptive and decentralized systems that reflect the variability and complexity of heat islands, and the revitalization of deteriorated urban areas. water flows. The Maipo River Basin, for instance, exemplifies the potential for innovative solutions, such as integrating greywater reuse, enhancing storage capacities, and implementing advanced treatment technologies to mitigate water scarcity. Moreover, the report’s call for “critical cartography”—mapping the often-invisible infrastructures that sustain urban life—as a powerful tool for reimagining urban landscapes. By making these systems visible, it is possible to foster a deeper public awareness of water’s centrality to urban resilience. Urban design and planning’s potential of designing water infrastructures that are not only functional but also deeply integrated into their ecological and social contexts is yet to be fully untapped. Both the hydrologically informed urban planning and the hydro-social contract models call to transcend mono-functional infrastructure, in favor of polyvalent systems that address diverse ecological, social, political and economic demands. All this in a time of fragility and inequality of urban systems in the face of extreme weather events.

185

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

both a resource and a right. Her concept of “hydro-social contracts” provides a critical lens through

186

187

188

Social Operative Infrastructure

UVA Medellín Colombia

The Articulated Life Units, UVA, is a network of public spaces located in different city neighborhoods, based on the large-scale water infrastructures existing in the city. With 20 social facilities, the infrastructure project provides spaces for recreation, culture, sports, and civic instances in each neighborhood.

189

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The Perlan building was designed in 1991 to function as a Cultural Center and planetarium, with a 360-degree viewpoint of the city. The project is mounted on six hot water tanks, each containing over one million gallons (4 million liters) of hot water from geothermal sources. The tanks were built at 125 fasl (38 masl) to obtain enough pressure to deliver hot water to a 10-story building.

Social Operative Infrastructure

190

PERLAN BUILDING Reykjavik Islandia

191

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

The Parco della Dora is located on a former industrial site where the Fiat Ferriere Piemontese steel factory and the Michelin tire company operated until 1980. Its abandoned 111 acres (45 hectares) were developed in five stages, including the Michelin tower cooling system, transformed into a rainwater pond and a water treatment plant, which is used by the park itself.

Social Operative Infrastructure

192

PARCO DELLA DORA Torino Italy

193

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

194

Social Operative Infrastructure

MARINA BARRAGE Singapur

The Marina Barrage is a dam built along the 1100-foot-wide (350-meter) Marina Canal to keep out seawater, creating a catchment area of 24,700 acres (10,000 hectares). The project operates as a source of drinking water supply, flood control, and a tourist attraction.

Singapore can draw up to 946,352 m^ 3 water a day from the Johor River, and Singapore is obliged to provide Johor with treated water up to 2% of the water they import.

Desalination : 10 %

apporximately: 30. 6 km long Imported Water: 50 %

Reclaimed Water: 30 %

Rainfall: 50 % water demand: 1 million m^3 water demand 5.612 million people in singapore 0.17 m^3 per person daily total: 4,170,446 m^3/ day maximum capacity land size: 721 km^2 land: 98.57% water: 1.43% seasonal precipitation: Fall: 569. 6 mm Winter: 666 mm Spring: 496.3 mm Summer: 433 mm Northeast monsoon: November- March Southwest monsoon: June to September

currently capturing approximately 946,352 m^ 3/ day through catchment areas

altitude: 15 m above sea level Reservoir <15m water:

Local Catchment | Imported water

7,000 km of waterways 32 major rivers 17 reservoirs

Reverse Osmosis

0.75

1.5

Kilometers 6

4.5

Ultraviolet Disinfection

Kranji WRP 40,000 m^3 daily

Desalination

NEWater

Pre Treatment

Intake Screens

Reverse Osmosis

Kranji NEWater Factory

Micro Filteration

SingSpring Desalination Plant: 136,382 m^3/ day

Bedok NEWater Factory

Tuaspring Desalination Plant:

Sembcorp NEWater

264,978 m^3/day Tuas Desalination Plant : 136,382 m^3/ day total: 537,742 m^3/ day Tuas WRP: 800,000 m^3/ day

Tuas WRP 800,000 m^3 daily

Changi WRP 900,000 m^3 daily 50 km of deep sewer tunnel and 60 km of link sewer connecting to existing sewers freed up 1.93 km^2 of land = 0.26% of totlal land

Krani WRP: 40,000 m^3/ day Changi WRP: 800,000 m^3/ day total : 1,740,000 m^3/ day

NEWater (DTSSS) | Desalination Plant 0

0.75

1.5

4.5

Kilometers 6

196

Social Operative Infrastructure

CHULALONGKORN Bangkok Tailandia

Chulalongkorn Centenary Park is a large-scale urban filtration system in the center of Bangkok, covering 11 acres. The park comprises a new building on a university campus and a sloped park where rainwater is managed by slowing it down, absorbing, filtering, and oxygenating the water. There are also built wetlands that serve both as water management infrastructure and a landscape used by the community.

197

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

198

Social Operative Infrastructure

DRYLINE Nueva York EEUU

Dryline is proposed as a coastal protection system against storm surges while also looking to use areas under highways around New York City. Through the design of new topographies and green spaces along with public pavilions, this infrastructure functions as a protection ring for the city to the south of Manhattan.

199

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Rotterdam, Netherlands

The Water Square generates public spaces through an urban strategy of surface rainwater storage systems that mitigate the effects of floods that the city of Rotterdam periodically experiences. The proposal seeks to explicitly show the collection of water and the flooding that causes it while providing a quality public space, strengthening community identity, and providing spaces and programs for recreation.

Social Operative Infrastructure

200

WATER SQUARE Rotterdam Paises Bajos

201

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Love Water is based on an educational and informational program, promoting good management of water from its own citizens through education, digital tools and physical interactions among its neighbors.

Social Operative Infrastructure

202

LOVE WATER Sydney Australia

203

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Amager Bakke is a waste-to-energy plant designed with a sloped public roof for skiing and hiking, defining a lookout point towards the city. Processing waste from 600,000 residents and 46 companies it burns 400,000 tonnes of waste a year, generating heating and electricity. It is considered one of the world’s cleanest incineration plants, reusing 26 million gallons of water and 100,000 tonnes of ashes.

Social Operative Infrastructure

204

AMAGER BAKKE Copenhague Dinamarca

205

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Living Breakwater integrates resilience across physical, social, and ecological dimensions. The waterfront project aims to function as a breakwater, reducing the risk of storms over the city and enabling the recovery of threatened marine habitats. The project involves residents in a social process of mitigation against the environmental risks associated with climate change.

Social Operative Infrastructure

206

STATEN ISLAND New York City EEUU

207

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

On fluid infrastructure and intangible flows In Australia and elsewhere First Nations peoples know water as akin to family and are bound to care for it in all its forms. Caring knowing requires deep participation in maintaining the health and viability of water places and the flows that emanate from above and below ground systems – the visible and the invisible qualities and dynamics of water over seasons, touched by the vagaries of weather and (un)anticipated circumstance. In remote, arid places seemingly untouched river and groundwater systems are nonetheless highly impacted by the forms of industrialisation processes that go along with extractive infrastructures, much of it buried until some mechanical assembly emerges from deep below. William Kentridge’s X-points relate to a perceptual vertical travelling upwards, from the very point of intersection at ground zero to as far as can be imagined. To imagine hovering above, it is possible to witness the dendritic patterns that herald the reach of water as it melds its way through the plains, valleys, and hillslopes of open country, moving inexorably towards the sea or inland lake. Traversing country with people who understand the science of water we also travel with people who practice the culture of and the right to water over generations - they map these dynamics from above, even though they have not seen the flows from that point of view. At places where these understandings coincide - perhaps they are W-points - the fluid nature of small and large interventions are uncovered, although they are often too subtle for visitors to recognise. It may be a collection of stones placed just so within a stream to changs the flow for everyday fish traps to endure for generations. Or a pipe and a valve will rise out of the plains as a sign of the more recent vast buried network of pipes that serve the fossil fuels long journeys to feed the energy needs of cities far removed. That water is fluid matter is undeniable yet the engineered infrastructures that have appeared, largely in industrial times and usually at the behest of the newer people to ensure ready supplies of water for commercialisation beyond everyday needs, are strangely static as they impress their marks onto the land and sea and into the margins between. As viewed from above, these imposing, immobile infrastructure networks are increasingly seen as wanting - they hold back

Social Operative Infrastructure

208

Gini Lee

209

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

the water rather than allowing space for it to flow as a matter of necessity. A more fluid intent returns to even older practices that lightly collaborate with earth systems, such as revealing streams above the surface, where once flows were encased in concrete underground. Urban places are now adopting daylighting strategies for water visibility as the old infrastructures are failing - too difficult to repair even if they were workable within the new agendas that climate change is bringing on. And where it is made visible its then possible to begin to know how to perform to care for water’s intangible qualities; sweetness, saltiness, sounds of rushing and of smoothness, fluid patterns, depthless and shallow colour and all the non-human and human creatures it sustains. Fluid infrastructures are enriched by operating with these elements, and there are many who can suggest ways to make such adaptable forms perform to rework and alter urban life and beyond - if we just imagine how to look to invite cultural flows in to play into and above the city.

Tomas Folch Co-founder of PAUR alongside Sofía Armanet, with a practice spanning architecture, urban design, and landscape. His professional experience includes projects in heritage recovery, urban design, housing, social facilities, and public space. He holds a professional degree and an M.Arch from PUC Chile, as well as a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. He was recognized as the Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellow for 202223 and served as a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design during 2023-24. Eugenio Simonetti Toro Principal Architect and Member of the board at the Construction Company in Almahue S.A, an architectural and real company based in Santiago de Chile. He studied at Universidad Finis Terrae in Chile, Politecnico di Milano in Italy and holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2008 . Eugenio was a cross registered MBA auditor at Harvard MBA classes of Competitive Strategy and Social Impact and Entrepreneurial Failure in 2019-2020. Eugenio has been a visiting faculty member as Design Critic at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Nicolas Kersting Msc. in Design and Innovation specializing in City and Territorial Studies (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile). He is a urban planner specialized in sustainable urban development, resilience, and participatory processes. He currently leads strategic urban development projects across Latin America. Previously, he was a researcher at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and is currently an academic at the Universidad Católica Boliviana.

Victoria Pellegrini completed her undergraduate studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Humanities before graduating as an Architect in 2016 with double academic honors. In 2020, she enrolled in the Master’s program in Landscape Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, graduating with a notable distinction. She is currently working as an independent architect in Chile. Antonia Besa Architect from the Catholic University of Chile and holds a Landscape Architecture Master’s degree from the University of Melbourne. She is currently a senior associate at PAUR Arquitectos and a lecturer for the Landscape Design Diploma at PUC. She was previously part of the academic team for the Master of Landscape Architecture at the University of Melbourne, where she also served as a researcher for the Waterlore project, which focused on the study and mapping of water in the arid regions of southern Australia.

Social Operative Infrastructure

210

Contributors

211

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti

Social Operative Infrastructure (Studio 1404)

Acknowledgments

Instructors Tomás Folch, Eugenio Simonetti

We would like to thanks Anita Berrizbeitia from Harvard GSD, Felipe Vera from the IBD, Marcela Renteria from the Rockefeller Center Latin American Studies, Sandra Andreu and Alberto Blanco from Aguas Andinas .

Dean and Josep Luis Sert Professor of Architecture Sarah Whiting Chair of Department of Landscape and Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscepe Architecture Gary Hilderbrand Copyright @ 2026 Harvard President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Text and Images @ 2025 by their authors. The editors have attempted to acknowledge all sources of images used and apologies for errors of omissions.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design 48 Quincy Steet Cambridge, MA 02138

We would also like to thank the Chilean Geologist and researcher at the World Glacier Monitoring Service since 2020 Ines Dussaillant and Adjunct Professor in Interior Design at RMIT University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Adelaide Gini Lee, also and specially to our families. Image Credits Cover image by Nicolas Kersting.

Social Operative Infrastructure

212

Colophon

213

Tomás Folch / Eugenio Simonetti