Land Policies through Participatory Urban Diagnosis

2010 – 2013

Authors:

Ignacio Cardona, Research Lead; Mariana Giménez, Alexandra Paty, Jesús Zambrano, Francisco Paúl, Manuel Llorens, Research Team

Institutions:

Universidad Simón Bolívar; Municipality of Sucre, Caracas

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This engaged research develops a participatory methodology for incorporating community knowledge into urban diagnosis and land policy in Petare, Caracas. Working across 52 low-income communities, residents identified their environments through three spatial categories: Pictures, places recognized as valuable and worth preserving; Black Spots, places associated with deterioration and everyday adversity; and Opportunities, spaces with potential for architectural or urban transformation.

The results of the participatory workshops were systematized and georeferenced using GIS, translating collective perceptions into spatial evidence for urban planning. The methodology positions residents not simply as sources of information but as active producers of urban knowledge, connecting lived experience, participatory diagnosis, and spatial analysis to inform public decision-making.