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A proposol for land use regulation of the Tunari national park south Vertient
Carlos R. Valenzuela PhD *
Fabiola Padilla Suárez MSc **
AFFILIATIONS
ITC/CLAS
CLAS
Abstract
The Tunari National Park, TNP, is a regional institution responsible of taking care of an area declared as
Natural Protected Area in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It’s main institutional objective is to preserve the Park,
to protect its natural resources and to plan it’s use. This particular park is quite different from other
natural protected areas in the country, particularly for its biodiversity, biomass production, its
localization close to the urban expansion area of the city of Cochabamba, and last, but not least, for being
traditionally and recently exploited area by the nearby population.
During the last few years, an accelerated land occupation has taken place in the area, resulting in a
growing surface covered urban settlements which are causing problems, both in the TNP itself as well as
in the lower areas of the Cochabamba city and the nearby Central Valley.
As a result of such problems the Cochabamba’s Departmental Government conducted a technical and
integral study of the area, as a local priority, in order to evaluate the risks caused to the park by the
increased human settlements. This study was conducted with the purpose of establishing an integral
management Land Use Plan for the south TNP hillside, involving all social actors directly related with
TNP and it had to be based on the land’s biophysics, potentialities and limitations. The goal was to write a
Regulation for the adequate and sustainable land use of the area.
To carry out the study, it was decided to use the advantages and functionalities of Geographic Information
Technologies (GIT), because such systems allow the user to analyse and to combine diverse types of
information (models) into an integral context.
First, a biophysical and socio-economical diagnostic of the area was done; it was carried out under a
multi-scale scheme, using satellite images and aerial photographs.
Once the biophysical studies were completed, a TNP vulnerability analysis and landslides and flooding
risks were carried out, modeling the problem using GIT, whose results can be useful for stakeholders at
the moment of taking sound decisions in order to preserve human lives and to prevent infrastructural
damages and minimizing environmental adverse effects.
The integral analysis allowed us to identify the priority of intervention and the protection areas. Priority
intervention areas were determined according: the higher damage, higher land degradation and/or erosion
degrees, the TNP conservation and the vulnerability protection and, finally, the risks for the settlers. The
special analysis using a GIS, allowed us to identify actual and/or future problems and enabled us to make
sound ex-post recommendations about the types and ways of intervention.
* E-mail: valenzuela@itc.nl
Fax: (591)(4) 42 56 551. Cochabamba-Bolivia.
** E-mail: fabisol@clas.umss.edu.bo
Fax: (591)(4) 42 56 551. Cochabamba-Bolivia.
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