EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The research project ‘Urban, Water and Social Integration Plan for Quilmes’ offers an innovative approach to address the main challenges of the city, with a long term and multidisciplinary approach that only top world research universities can offer. Quilmes coastline is seen as a great real estate development opportunity in an ecologically very sensible area that will face severe changes with the effect of sea level change and the continuous increase of climatic effects, in which the current flooding will be dramatically increased.
While high profile development actors are taking positions in the coast, the streams –‘arroyos’ in the inner city constitute an acute social and environmental challenge, with some of the least privileged citizens bear systematic pollution and flooding, in a city that does not meet by far the minimum standards of public space and other basic public facilities.

Recommendations for the coastal area

1.Reorganize future development along the coast adjusting the total square footage to the appropriate amount for the market to avoid ‘ghost neighborhoods’, compatible with the coastal ecologies and adapted to the increased levels of flooding expected in the area.

2.Reformulate the flood mitigation structures proposed in the Rain Drainage Masterplan, using the current berm of the highway and creating a floodable public space to drain the urban area of Quilmes during sudestada.

3.Create a continuous system of ecological and public spaces along the coast, addressing the three different conditions: a/transformation of the landfills into parks, b/reinforcement of the natural forest along the coast to prevent erosion and increase ecological value, and c/management of the ‘sudestada’ floods in public floodable parks.

Recommendations for the inner city

4.Connect the ‘arroyos’ with the Rio de La Plata through daylighted streams using the vacant land of the ‘Acceso Sudeste’, transforming this unfinished highway in a new central area of Quilmes with an urban park, public facilities and social housing.

5.Create a system of linear parks along the arroyos, able to manage floods while offering social benefits and inclusion.

6.Reorder the interior city traffic in a macro grid of ‘superblocks’, introducing a sub grid of green slow mobility corridors, connecting the main civic nodes and parks, prioritizing pedestrians and bicycles.