Degree in architectural Catholic University of the north, Antofagasta Chile (1994); Master's Degree in Urban Planning from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain (2001); Master's Degree in business administration (MBA) Universidad Católica del Norte (2006). During 2001-2007 he worked in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development MINVU in the Urban Projects’ Management (DPU), participating in the elaboration of urban plans and management of urban projects. From 2007 to today he is an associate professor at the School of Architecture of the Universidad Católica del Norte. In 2013 he was Director of the Communal Planning Secretary of the Municipality of Antofagasta, Chile. He has participated in several bioclimatic urbanism and urban design seminars on a national and international level. Among his latest publications, are: "The Master Plan as an urban design instrument: Potentialities and limitations, the case of Antofagasta", "The urban project La Chimba in Antofagasta, successes and pending challenges”, and “A Cool Urban Island Change 1990-2014 Comparative bioclimatic analysis in Desert Climate, the Case of Antofagasta City Square”. His scientific fields of interest are; sustainable planning, ecological urban projects and bioclimatic analysis of public space. Since 2015, he is studying a PhD doctorate in architecture, urban and territorial planning curriculum at the University of Florence, Italy.

Research Project Summary

Modern cities in the 21st century will be responsible for 80% of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions and concentrate 75% of the global world energy consumption. In this context, cities should play an active role in mitigation actions to reduce the climate change trend. Mitigation and adaptation  are the two main responses developed to fight against climate change for cities. Mitigation strategies are oriented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and are mainly focused on waste treatment projects, alternative generation of energy, and public transport on an urban scale. In the last decade, some examples to mitigate climate change have emerged. Cities like Freiburg and Graz have incorporated participative strategies and urban regeneration methods in planning and projects of mitigation (Späth, 2011) and similar initiatives can be found in Ghent, Belgium (Devolder & Block, 2015). In effect, several Latin Americans cities are conducting mitigation projects with heterogeneous actions such as waste treatment, energy supply, public transportation, urban planning, building activities and land use. Also, many transport projects carried out are being considered within the mitigation strategies, as is the case of Medellín, Bogota, Curitiba and Lima. The scale of analysis used is only for cities and a deep review in project scale is not considered. Thus, this research intends to deepen the knowledge of urban projects oriented to mitigating the climate change effects in large sized cities of Latin America, and the research question is: How can mitigation urban projects contribute to reduce climate change in Latin American cities?

Key words: cities and climate change, mitigation urban projects, governance and urban planning