Morelia.
Urban renovation in a changing city.
Morelia, experienced a rapid urban expansion in the last decades, which resulted in a far-from-optimal urban form. To solve this issue, the city has embraced a long term (2038) and ambitious plan, which is expected to mitigate carbon emissions and conserve the natural and cultural heritage.
In a decade, the urban sprawl increased about 43% in Morelia City, almost the double of its total urban land! incredible, right?
This phenomenon caused negative urban, economic and environmental consequences for the city, problems that couldn’t be predict due to the lack of an effective plan. In 2018, Morelia’s Municipal Planning Institute (IMPLAN) decided to strength urban planning and regulation policies and to updae the City Urban Development Plan.
With the support of GIZ’s CiClim Program and the technical assistance of Secretariat of Agrarian, Land, and Urban Development (SEDATU), Morelia developed more than 200 scenarios with Urban Performance.
The proposals we tested with IMPLAN’s experts were mainly focused on redensification projects. But modelling redensification in Morelia was more challenging than expected. First, part of the city’s is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Second, the city’s vocation is rapidly changing from industrial to services. And third, Morelia is going through a demographic transition (mainly related to an aging population).
Results were projected to 2038 and showed that a realistic redensification scenario could cut by 48,831 tons CO2eq/year as compared to a business as usual scenario, if an integrated plan is implemented as well as potential savings in infrastructure. Additionally, the group found co-benefits in the accesibility to the public services, transit and potential improvements building energy use.
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