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This paper employs the concepts of sustainability and habitability to define and measure ecological urbanism in informal settlements founded by people who have been forcibly displaced by violence. The objective is to identify the obstacles in meeting the tenets of ecological urbanism in informal settlements. We offer primary research from La Primavera, an informal settlement founded by internally displaced people in the late 1970s, located in the corregimiento El Hatillo of Barbosa, Antioquia in northwestern Colombia. Primary research includes qualitative and quantitative data gathered through 72 surveys and 45 technical assessments of properties and houses in the settlement. Situated between the Aburrá River and the northbound highway, above a gas pipeline and under an electricity pylon, La Primavera exists in a state of extreme risk, exacerbated by increasing migration which threatens to exceed the carrying capacity of the territory. Moreover, in Article 35 of Law 388 of 1997, the territory was declared a protected or restricted area and earmarked for the development of the regional commuter train, called the Tren de Cercanías, in 2017. The case study highlights the contradictions in the development agenda in Colombia by showing how development projects designed for the economic betterment and environmental conservation of the region negatively impact the quality of life for the most vulnerable inhabitants and expose them to greater environmental, economic, and social risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the Anthropocene against the backdrop of armed conflict. 2 To this end, it analyses two mining projects: one in southwestern Antioquia in Colombia and the other in the Luhwindja Chiefdom in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After examining the post-agreement and post-war political contexts of each country, this paper describes the extraction projects implemented in the territories, as well as the forms of resistance of the local populations. It also depicts the reconstruction of the territory as a place for cognitive production, affective participation, and discursive imagination. The very concept of territory is re-signified, beyond its geographical definition, as a territory of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructural design, transport and mobility policies are strong instruments for interpreting historical urban and regional transformation processes. The paper addresses the intercausalities between both of them. To do so, it briefly sketches debates on the causalities of transport infrastructure and urbanisation and the theory of technological politics, drawing attention to the relationship between transport infrastructure and politics, and how infrastructures and their techno-political frames include means of power and authority. From there, the paper moves to the debate on the relationship between social justice and transport, showing how transport systems embody social processes and social (in)injustice. The history of agrarian extractivism in the region of Urabá in Colombia serves as a case study. The paper shows how existing transport networks of the region of Urabá have supported the expansion of agrarian extractivist industries and more specifically the production of transport (in)justice. It explores the development of the infrastructural network, transport systems and urbanisation of this region from the early 1900s onwards. Results show how the actual agrarian extractivist industries of the region are causing huge challenges related to the overlapping of transport scales, congestion and risks of accidents in urban areas, and how actual transport dynamics in the region are affecting urban development, generating a high segregation characterised by uneven distributions of public services and transport infrastructures. The paper reveals that the existing transport developments in the region of Urabá have no support for local development and are mainly thought for the efficiency of agrarian extractivist industries over local economic development. Agrarian extractivism has been a consistent factor in the economic, political and social spheres, and since colonial times the appropriation of natural resources and the dispossession of territories has been omnipresent. This paper explores the historical role of transport in agrarian extractivism, the long-term impact of the prolongation of old mechanisms, and the interrelations of the latter with current urbanisation and development. It concludes that infrastructural developments in this region have supported agrarian extractivist industries, first in colonial times, but also more recently, showing the deep embeddedness of the relation between mobility and urbanity in the (agrarian extractivist) development history of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, residual biomass usage by means of anaerobic digestion offers several benefits and opportunities, such as a sustainable energy source, production of organic fertilizers and new agrobusiness models. In Latin America, Colombia is one of the most promising markets for the implementation of this technology in terms of availability of biomass and economic growth, as recently reported by local government organizations. In this paper, special attention is given to Antioquia, a department of Colombia with the largest farms of cattle and pigs, according to information reported in 2018 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. It is estimated that manure from the porcine subsector in Antioquia has an approximate technical-energy potential of 1,896 TJ year-1, varying from 1,611 to 2,186 TJ year-1, corresponding to the 95% confidence interval. In the case of manure generated by the livestock subsector in Antioquia, it is estimated a theoretical energy potential of 8,566 TJ year-1. However, traditional extensive production systems disseminate manure through the pastures turning centralization of the available residual biomass a difficult task and not senseful. Based on the local practices of the specialized dairy subsector, it is estimated that manure collected during the milking process could reached up to 25% of the total available. Biochemical conversion of this amount of biomass has an estimated technical-energy potential of 187 TJ year-1, varying from 156 and 236 TJ year-1, corresponding to the 95% confidence. The aim of this article is to estimate the technical-energy potential for the livestock and porcine subsectors in the Department of Antioquia, based on the available residual biomass according to local farming practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explosive growth of swine production at high stocking densities in confinement farming worldwide, has raised concerns the environmental impact, health and livestock productivity and the production of associated gases in this type of large-scale farms. The aim of this paper was to study the methane gas concentration and emissions of ten different typologies of swine production installations. The facilities were in the department of Antioquia - Colombia, they were located between 800-2,300 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) of heights, they mainly employed natural ventilation as refrigeration strategy and they were used for pigs in fattening stage. Methane measurements were taken at animal height. Sensors were located at intermediate points of the ventilation inlet and outlet areas. The behaviour of methane concentration and emission of the facilities were analysed along with the correlation and temporal evolution of climatic variables, comfort indices and construction typologies. The information was analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal component analysis (PCA). Were found an average of CH4 Emission Rate (ER) per facility (kg year-1) of 607.9, Global Warming Potential (GWP) per facility (kg year-1) of 15,197.42 and significant correlations between ER and cleaning frequency (CF), animal unit (AU), air flow (Q), animal density(AD) and relative humidity (RH) were evidenced. This is the first research reported in Colombia, that will be important to create some governmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to analyze the magnitude and spatial variability of environmental variables: Temperature and Relative Humidity Index (THI), Radiant Thermal Load (RTL), Globe Temperature and Relative Humidity Index (BGTH) and Enthalpy (H), inside a house for laying hens, in the state of Antioquia (Colombia) during the month of August. A traditional Colombian poultry house with natural ventilation was used. All variables were manually measured at equally spaced 1.0×1.0 m points, totaling 99 data collection points inside the poultry house. Geostatistical techniques were used through semivariogram analysis, and isochore maps were generated through data interpolation by kriging. The semivariogram was fitted by the restricted maximum likelihood method. The used mathematical model was the spherical one. After adjusting the semivariograms, the data were interpolated by ordinary kriging. The semivariograms and the isochore maps allowed identifying the non-uniformity of the spatial distribution of all evaluated variables throughout the poultry house. The results show that THI, RTL, BGTH and, H presented values above the comfort limits in the most significant part of the poultry house during the observed period. It is possible to concluded that the use of natural ventilation alone was not sufficient to guarantee the homeothermy conditions for the layers. Thus, it is suggested that in addition to natural ventilation, secondary modifications should be used to improve farm productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first results of the inquiries on the valuation made by the very victims of the armed conflict, in the municipality of San Carlos Antioquia (Colombia) are shown in this paper, which are part of the implementation of the 1448 Law (Law of Victims); such a research process of, in this first installment, evidenced among other findings, the contradiction between the official discourse and the story of the victims in relation to the reparation processes, contradictory speeches regarding the transition, the state of infringement and dissatisfaction of victimized people's basic needs, as well as a high confusion as for the implementation of the Law. These findings, among others, allow to affirm that reparation today, is far from being a process that contributes to the reconstruction of the social fabric, to peace, and reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale placer mining in Colombia takes place in rural areas and involves excavations resulting in large footprints of bare soil and water ponds. Such excavated areas comprise a mosaic of challenging terrains for cloud and cloud-shadow detection of Sentinel-2 (S2A and S2B) data used to identify, map, and monitor these highly dynamic activities. This paper uses an efficient two-step machine-learning approach using freely available tools to detect clouds and shadows in the context of mapping small-scale mining areas, one which places an emphasis on the reduction of misclassification of mining sites as clouds or shadows. The first step is comprised of a supervised support-vector-machine classification identifying clouds, cloud shadows, and clear pixels. The second step is a geometry-based improvement of cloud-shadow detection where solar-cloud-shadow-sensor geometry is used to exclude commission errors in cloud shadows. The geometry-based approach makes use of sun angles and sensor view angles available in Sentinel-2 metadata to identify potential directions of cloud shadow for each cloud projection. The approach does not require supplementary data on cloud-top or bottom heights nor cloud-top ruggedness. It assumes that the location of dense clouds is mainly impacted by meteorological conditions and that cloud-top and cloud-base heights vary in a predefined manner. The methodology has been tested over an intensively excavated and well-studied pilot site and shows 50% more detection of clouds and shadows than Sen2Cor. Furthermore, it has reached a Specificity of 1 in the correct detection of mining sites and water ponds, proving itself to be a reliable approach for further related studies on the mapping of small-scale mining in the area. Although the methodology was tailored to the context of small-scale mining in the region of Antioquia, it is a scalable approach and can be adapted to other areas and conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]