Socio-Ecological Studies in Urban and Rural Ecosystems in Chile - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 294

Fig. 19.1 The fi gure shows land use change in the city of Valdivia close to, and in wetland areas.
Panel ( a ) shows Valdivia main city confi guration in 1961, 1 year after the 9.5 earthquake, where
areas close to wetlands were used as temporal housing (the 'rucos') which evolved later into per-
manent housing. Panel ( b ), shows that similar areas close to wetland would be used for the alloca-
tion of trash and debris in a hypothetical post-earthquake scenario today and the evolution of main
urban wetlands
cities, San Francisco and Kobe, have proved that in the presence of water and
vegetation found in urban parks and streams, were fundamental for earthquake
recovery after the 1909 and 1995 earthquakes respectively (Allan and Bryant 2011 ;
Hayashi 2010 ). However, in Valdivia, most wetland areas are perceived as places to
dispose debris and garbage, regardless of the water and vegetation these places con-
tain, a situation that can be witnessed every day (Fig. 19.1b ).
Landscapes perceived as dirty, unmanaged, and dangerous, or even just empty,
tend to be valued negatively by planners and urban dwellers (Van den Berg et al.
2007 ). This is the case for Valdivia where wetlands were once a 'beautiful' land-
scape useful for sailing and recreation (Guarda 2009 ), but now are waste lands with
overgrown vegetation, lack of public urban infrastructure, and accessibility.
Interestingly, a similar study in Concepcion, Chile, proved the opposite situation
than in Valdivia. This study found urban wetlands useful for water extraction, tem-
porary refuge, as places for public gathering, rather than for debris and waste dis-
posal (Villagra and Rojas 2013 ). In Concepcion, the wetlands provide daily
recreation and have been taken into account for urban design, intervention, and
management, as they were perceived as positive assets by the community following
an earthquake scenario. The little value assigned to urban wetlands in Valdivia
today, as providers of ecosystems services after a disaster, is probably due to their