Elsevier

Applied Geography

Volume 35, Issues 1–2, November 2012, Pages 439-447
Applied Geography

Vivid valleys, pallid peaks? Hypsometric variations and rural–urban land change in the Central Peruvian Andes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.09.009Get rights and content
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Abstract

What happens to the land cover within the hinterland's altitudinal belts while Central Andean cities are undergoing globalization and urban restructuring? What conclusions can be drawn about changes in human land use? By incorporating a regional altitudinal zonation model, direct field observations and GIS analyses of remotely sensed long term data, the present study examines these questions using the example of Huancayo Metropolitano – an emerging Peruvian mountain city of 420,000 inhabitants, situated at 3260 m asl in the Mantaro Valley.

The study's results indicate that rapid urban growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s was followed by the agricultural intensification and peri-urban condominization at the valley floor (quechua) – since the beginning of Peru's neoliberal era. Moreover, regarding the adjoining steep slopes (suni) and subsequent grassland ecosystems (puna), the research output presents land cover change trajectories that clearly show an expansion of human land use, such as reforestation for wood production and range burning for livestock grazing, even at high altitudes – despite rural–urban migration trends and contrary to several results of extra-Andean studies.

Consequently, rural–urban planners and policy makers are challenged to focus on the manifold impacts of globalization on human land use – at all altitudinal belts of the Andean city's hinterland: toward sustainable mountain development that bridges the social and physical gaps – from the bottom up.

Highlights

► Huancayo Metropolitano's hinterland is undergoing major land cover change. ► Agricultural intensification follows rapid urban growth since the mid-1990s. ► Increasing activities of human land use reach to high-altitude puna grasslands. ► High-altitude zones need to be integrated into urban and peri-urban planning.

Keywords

Landscape change
Altitudinal belts
Globalization
Mountain cities
Central Andes
Peru

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