Disaster Risk and the Regularization of Informal Settlements in the Peri-Urban Areas of Quito: A Public Policy Design and Governance Approach

More than 200 million people are affected by disasters, whose magnitude is worsened by factors such as climate change and the socioeconomic conditions of vulnerable populations. This makes disaster risk a development issue. As a result of this concern, disaster risk has entered the public agenda with a systemic vision, considering risk as a social product linked to hazards and vulnerabilities in an exposed society.

Informal settlements in Latin America generally present high levels of vulnerability as they are often located in multi-hazard zones. In Quito, Ecuador, there is accelerated growth toward hazard-prone peripheries, contrasting with the urban decline of its central areas. This has generated social problems such as segregation, gentrification, marginalization, and more broadly, an increase in disaster risk, as evidenced by the recurring impact of events.

In response to this issue, the study aims to analyze how disaster risk has been constructed in the peri-urban areas of Quito, and how different public policies are currently being applied to reverse this situation. To this end, an analytical methodological framework for public policy design is proposed, where governance models serve as the explanatory factor for policy outcomes. This is done through a mixed-methods research design.

The qualitative, quantitative, and socio-spatial data processed reveal at different scales that, while informal settlement regularization policies have succeeded in formalizing land tenure and ownership, their legalization has not mitigated risk conditions. On the contrary, it has reproduced and generated other types of physical and social vulnerabilities. Therefore, alternatives for policy implementation are proposed.