Risks of post-disaster amendments to territorial planning instruments at municipal level in Chile

• Main Authors: Roberto Moris, Pablo Contrucci, Andrea Ortega
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: GRID Chile 2017-07-01
• Series: REDER
• Subjects: Estudios de riesgos, planificación urbana, Instrumentos de planificación territorial, planes reguladores comunales, Chile
• Online Access: http://www.revistareder.com/ojs/index.php/reder/article/view/6

This article reviews the development of risk assessment studies and their incorporation into Territorial Planning Instruments (IPT) in areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami of the 27th February 2010 (27F) during the following five years after the event. The processes of modification of the Communal Regulatory Plans (PRC) of the communes of the O’Higgins, Maule and Bío- Bío regions were analyzed. In many of the affected communes, well-founded risk studies were generated as inputs for their regulatory plans. The process revealed that there were communes and towns that did not even have an urban boundary, and cases of PRC that had not been updated, which made them vulnerable to new events. This, coupled with the fact that PRCs only cover urban areas and that most of the rural sectors that were affected did not have planning instruments and risk zoning. Despite the large number of studies for amending regulatory plans and areas at risk, very few plans were successfully approved. The analysis shows that there is an urgent need to advance in the improvement of territorial planning instruments in terms of the updating of the risk studies in post-disaster processes.