Rethinking Urban Development: Santa Fe Bets on Nature with an Urban Nature Reserve (UNR)

Santa Fe is a city with a population of 400,000, located 475km north-west of Buenos Aires, at the junction of the Paraná river and its tributary, the Salado, which surround  the urban area from the east and west respectively.
The western areas of the city are vulnerable in two ways:

• Geography: Built in the Salado floodplain, these areas are highly vulnerable to flooding, as shown by two recent events. In 2003, the exceptional rise in water level led to the death of 24 people and the evacuation of nearly 130,000 people, over a quarter of the city’s population, and then in 2007, heavy rainfall flooded these areas yet again.
• Socioeconomic situation: These areas exposed to risk are inhabited by some of the poorest population groups in the city. This means their housing is often unsafe.

The new municipality, elected in December 2007, began a ‘Comprehensive Urban Programme’, to direct the available public funds towards western areas and reduce their geographical and socioeconomic vulnerability.
 

• Creation of a Natural Reserve : The creation of the Natural Urban Reserve firstly involves marking out the area then rehousing the families living there informally The project plans to formalise the urban front on the boundaries of the NUR town by building a road lined with plots of land, which will be used to rehouse these families.
• Reduce the flood risk by collecting rainwater : The creation of the NUR will be supported by extending and deepening the rainwater reservoirs, while ensuring that the ecological function of the site is maintained (according to the Management Plan) Special attention is given to the analysis and use of extracted material.
• Promote the economic and social development of this area : The project involves redeploying informal workers, which is a determining factor in the project’s success; eliminating informal waste-sorting activity in and around the area is an essential prerequisite to the project. The project will address this in two ways: by creating urban allotments managed by the families, who will be given training beforehand, and by integrating every informal worker living off waste-sorting into preexisting redeployment initiatives.

The project envisages:

• An ecological restoration of the site / rehousing of families living within the area/creation of local jobs to maintain the zone;
• An extension and deepening of réservoirs / reinforcement of the risk culture among visitors to the NUR and pupils;
• A redeployment of all the informal workers in the sector.