Resiliencia urbana y COVID19. El caso de Loja - Ecuador

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The health emergency caused by the COVID19 has put the model of the city, housing and housing practices in crisis, manifesting situations that show new spatial requirements, a restructuring of public and private systems and spaces, and new ways of occupying them. OBJECTIVE. The present research investigates the changes in the occupation of public space and the adaptation of urban systems in the context of the pandemic. METHOD. Focus groups were used to identify these new practices through the mapping of routes in the city, which were contrasted and verified with the changes in the supply structure of the city and through a survey applied to a sample of the population of the city of Loja. RESULTS. The results obtained indicate that the population has changed its behavior and ways of interacting in the city and that at the same time the city has functionally adapted in response to the COVID19 scenario. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. It is evident that this response rethinks the logic of the centralized city to one of a distributed city, where proximity services are a resilient solution produced by changes in economic and social dynamics.