Browsing by Author "Castillo, Bryan"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Delayed and Approved: A Quantitative Study of Conflicts and the Environmental Impact Assessments of Energy Projects in Chile 2012-2017
    (MDPI, 2021) Huneeus, Sebastian; Toro, Sergio; Luna, Juan Pablo; Sazo, Diego; Cruz, Andres; Alcatruz, Daniel; Castillo, Bryan; Bertranou, Camila; Cisterna, Javier
    The Sistema de Evaluacion de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System-SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile's La Araucania region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.
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    Elderly Walking Access to Street Markets in Chile: An Asset for Food Security in an Unequal Country
    (2023) Rojas Quezada Carolina Alejandra; Castillo, Bryan; Villegas, Rodrigo; Vecchio, Giovanni; Steiniger, Stefan; Carrasco, Juan Antonio; CEDEUS (Chile)
    Street markets can contribute to food security, since they are a source of fresh food and comparably inexpensive goods, being very relevant for low-income groups. Their relevance is even higher when considering older people, due to their often-constrained financial resources and possibilities to move. To assess the potential contribution of street markets to food security, this paper aims at evaluating to what extent older people have access to such a relevant asset. We consider the case of Chile, an ageing country with an unequal pension system, which makes it relevant for older people to access healthy and inexpensive food. We analyze what proportion of older people (i.e., people over 65) has walking access within 10 min to a street market—feria libre—in each Chilean region, with particular detail in the country’s four major urban areas. We compare the resulting accessibility maps with census data to identify neighborhoods with higher proportions of older people and examine their socio-economic conditions. Our findings show that while street markets are less accessible to older people in comparison to the general population, the inhabitants who can access them belong mainly to low-income groups. The results provide relevant insights to develop neighborhood-based policies for spreading and strengthening street markets, especially in low-income areas with insufficient levels of access to other relevant urban opportunities.
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    Fair transport policies for older people: accessibility and affordability of public transport in Santiago, Chile
    (SPRINGER, 2022) Vecchio, Giovanni; Tiznado-Aitken, Ignacio; Castillo, Bryan; Steiniger, Stefan; CEDEUS (Chile)
    In this paper, we test how different public transport policy scenarios score in terms of fairness for a specific population group, considering a more complex representation of mobility-related inequalities and the policy implications of transport justice. To do so, we assess potential accessibility to public transport in Santiago de Chile under different policy scenarios, focusing on older people as a group whose demographic and socioeconomic conditions can determine different forms of disadvantage. We compare alternative accessibility policies based on the expansion of the Metro infrastructure network or on reduced public transport fares, considering the interaction between the spatial availability and the affordability of public transport. Results show that subsidized fares for public transport services are more beneficial to expand the accessibility of older people, especially those with lower incomes, while the expansion of the Metro network benefits mainly middle- and high-income older people. The proposed analysis is a first step towards a more detailed, place-based reading of mobility-related inequalities, aimed at assessing alternative policy measures.
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    Movilidad urbana y personas mayores en Santiago de Chile: El valor de integrar métodos de análisis, un estudio en el barrio San Eugenio
    (Universidad de Chile. FAU, 2021) Vecchio, Giovanni; Castillo, Bryan; Steiniger, Stefan; CEDEUS (Chile); Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Instituto de Estudios Urbanos y Territoriales
    Demographic changes in Latin America, and especially in Chile, indicate that the population is becoming older: already in 2050, one out of four Latin Americans and one out of three Chileans will be older than 60. Among the elements that contribute to the wellbeing of the elderlies, mobility and accessibility play a fundamental role. Priorities set out for mobility planning and politics should reflect these aspects. Nonetheless, the traditional methods of transport planning in Chile are not able to adequately grasp the forms in which elderlies move and access urban opportunities. We discuss the value of integrating different methods of analysis to better represent the mobility of elderlies. Examining the mobility and accessibility behaviour of seniors in the neighbourhood of San Eugenio, in Santiago de Chile, the paper compares the results of interviews and household travel surveys, observing to what extent these contribute to the description of mobility and accessibility for the examined population. The results show the relevance of qualitative approaches that, at the neighbourhood scale, examine elderlies, considering that these methods detect mobility practices and accessibility patterns difficult to observe with more aggregate forms of analysis. The approach to elderly mobility allowed by qualitative tools allows considering the conditions for their adoption when planning mobility at neighbourhood and municipal scale.
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    Resultados encuestas HUELLACOVID: emisiones de CO2 en pandemia en hogares de ciudades del Centro Sur de Chile
    (2021) Rojas Quezada, Carolina Alejandra; Simon, François; Irarrázaval Irarrázaval, Felipe; Quintana, Marc; Stamm, Caroline Andre; Castillo, Bryan
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    Short run “rebound effect” of COVID on the transport carbon footprint
    (Elsevier, 2022) Rojas Quezada Carolina Alejandra; Muñiz, Iván; Quintana, Marc; Simon, Francois; Castillo, Bryan; Rivera, Joaquín
    pandemic completely transformed the mobility of cities. The restrictions on movement led to “empty cities” throughout the world, with some environmental effects in terms of clean air and the reduction of CO2 emissions. This research considers how COVID-19 mobility restrictions have affected the carbon footprint of four medium-sized Chilean cities (Coronel, Temuco, Valdivia, and Osorno) that have environmental problems and are highly dependent on motorized systems. The study uses data from 2400 household surveys at three distinct times: pre-pandemic - T0 (winter 2019), the time of implementation of restrictive mobility policies to contain the pandemic - T1 (winter 2020), and six months later when those restrictions were gradually lifted - T2 (summer 2021). The analysis suggests that CO2 emissions actually went up, declining in the winter 2020, but then increasing with the greater use of cars in the summer 2021 due to the temporary effects of commuting to work, ultimately reaching levels higher than the pre-pandemic values, known as the “rebound effect.”