With a growing population, increasing consumption, and accompanying high rates of solid waste, Cusco’s historic inner city neighborhoods have increasingly been feeling the need for the kind of in-depth accounting of conditions on the ground that is required to institute a holistic solution to their garbage problem. This kind of collecting and mapping of information around material flows through and waste collection from the neighborhood is exactly what happened during Phase 2 of the SecondaryCities project, when a team of interns — well versed in facilitating technical, community engagement, and planning processes through our EcoCompass participatory course curriculum — conducted an impact analysis of the four historic neighborhoods of San Pedro, San Blas, San Cristobal and Santa Ana.
Made possible by a collaboration that includes Cusco’s land-use planning department, the Environmental Engineering Department at Universidad Alas Peruanas, as well as local community partners Ingenio verde Cusco and the Association for Pro-coexistence neighborhood center in Camino Real, the team created detailed views of neighborhood archetypes of the historic districts, researched and co-designed compost modules that were piloted throughout the four communities in the homes of participating neighbors, and conducted an impact analysis to communicate their designs and findings with other community members and the local government.
Here’s a gallery of maps and diagrams that were created as a result of this project’s implementation. Enjoy!
PARCELS & BUILDINGS
GIS EXERCISE
This map was developed as a first GIS exercise in the 2C Course this year. The 2C Course participants worked with Camino Real community leader, Guido Ugarte to geospatially process and update the maps that previously existed for Camino Real and were only hand drawn. The map outlines the parcels and building materials for each lot. The City of Cusco does not have a catastro map. The OT has been puzzle piecing together parcel maps like this one from different initiatives that span over 25 years to build this important resource for their city. This map will contribute to this process.
QUALITY OF LIFE
VISUALIZATION
These maps are visualizations of select questions from the quality of life survey. This exercise helps to visually understand community members’ perspectives about their quality of life in a geospatial way. These layers can be cross referenced with additional information to geospatially investigate possible correlations.
ARCHETYPE MAP
ARCHETYPE CRITERIA
This neighborhood archetype map shows the San Pedro and Camino Real archetypes in detail. You can see the relation between the characterization of neighborhoods or determination of neighborhood archetypes. Based on these initial assumptions, Camino Real is in the classification ‘Neighborhood in Expansion’ (color: light blue) and San Pedro is classifies as a Central Neighborhood” (color: red). All of these assumptions are currently under review by the 2C data partners and other representatives from the municipality and will be revised with their input.
SAN PEDRO
ARCHETYPE
This is a detailed view of the historic neighborhood archetype elaborated in the Historic District of San Pedro. The map and table of characteristics show aspects or criteria considered to carry out the neighborhood characterization.
COMPARING ARCHETYPES
ARCHETYPE
These detailed archetype maps are helpful to see side by side as they represent two archetype groups: Arch. I: Historical and Arch. II Unplanned, Modern. Criteria such as green areas, number of lots, density of population, land use distribution (percentage commercial/residential/educational), access to city resources (such as health centers, water, waste collection) are clearly distributed very differently between the 2C focal neighborhoods.
CAMINO REAL
ARCHETYPE
This map outlines the factors that designate Camino Real as a Type II Neighborhood Archetype. The table below describes the criteria being considered
DUMPING SITES
COMPOSTING
This map tells the story of the Phase I 2C project findings and the development of the Phase II implementation of a community compost program in the historic communities of Cusco. 2C Interns walked the streets of the four historic neighborhoods and consulted with community members to develop this map which outlines the four historic neighborhoods and identifies informal, temporary dumping sites throughout these four communities. As can be seen in the photo documentation here, the garbage piles high over time, attracts dogs, and spills into waterways.
HOMES WITH COMPOST MODELS
COMPOSTING
This map documents the location of homes throughout the historic neighborhoods where the 2C Interns built and piloted their compost designs. The two different color dots indicate the type of model that the household has, either vermi-compost or the rotating model.. The interns worked with community leaders to solicit equal participation from each neighborhood, but found the most responsive neighborhoods to be San Pedro and San Blas. This is the 2C local team’s second year working in San Pedro and the community contacts and trust have been established there. As a final event, the students presented their findings to over 60 community members who are interested in building a module in their own homes. The interns had developed a pamphlet with module construction instructions as well as a compost guide that they specifically created for Cusco climate and building designs. These materials are available to community members so that they can go on to spread the compost program throughout their community through peer to peer urbanism. The idea is that those who were taught through this phase can teach a new group to build their own modules.
DUMP SITES CAMINO REAL
COMPOSTING
This map identifies informal garbage dump sites throughout Camino Real. The photo documentation provides a visual for what these sites look like. This research group was investigating different types of plastics that are accumulating at these sites. They included a pie chart analysis of the waste characterization that includes details about the specific types of plastic waste being generated by Camino Real residents.
EDUCATION
CAMINO REAL
This map identifies educational centers and potential educational centers throughout Camino Real.
WATERSHED
CAMINO REAL
This map identifies important characteristics of the watershed within Camino Real. It outlines the wetland region of Camino Real and the three fresh springs. In the photo documentation of these sites, it is clear to see how improper waste disposal is contaminating the valuable wetland features. Residents reported that just 10 years ago, they were able to drink from the three springs. Now they cannot. This is partially due to agricultural practices and partially due to waste contamination.
SEWAGE
CAMINO REAL
This map and the accompanying photo documentation identify sources of sewage pollution to waterways throughout Camino Real. The photos correlate with points on the map. This is a great resource for the local government to understand vulnerabilities that need improvement in this unplanned but fast growing neighborhood and for community members who want to solicit clean up support from the local government.
MATERIAL WASTE
CAMINO REAL
This map and the accompanying photo documentation identify sources of material waste pollution to waterways throughout Camino Real. The photos correlate with points on the map.
WASTE COLLECTION
CAMINO REAL
This map communicated a proposed waste collection route through the Camino Real neighborhood and includes four designated dumpster sites and three transfer stations.
CONTAMINATION SOURCES
CAMINO REAL
This map identifies contamination sources throughout the Camino Real neighborhood, and analyzes them in relation to the proposed waste collection route outlined on the previous map.
AVERAGE DEMAND
CAMINO REAL
This map indicates the households that were audited by the 2C Course participants. The pie charts describe the average demand or material waste production in Camino Real. Approximately 10% of all households in the neighborhood were audited. 2C students used the map from the previous slide to ensure that they audited buildings of each material type.
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Posted at 22:12h, 10 November[…] composting modules are sprouting up throughout Cusco’s historic neighborhoods and new archetype maps are being made available to planners, academics, and community members as a result of the Ecocity […]
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Posted at 22:29h, 10 November[…] composting modules are sprouting up throughout Cusco’s historic neighborhoods and new archetype maps are being made available to planners, academics, and community members as a result of the Ecocity […]