LA PLATA RIVER BASINS
Quilmes is a city of 580,000 inhabitants within Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), the capital city of Argentina. This greater metropolis has a total population of around 15,600,000 people. It is located on the southern fluvial terrace of La Plata River, out of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers deltaic dynamics, in the northeastern coast of Argentina.
Quilmes, located in the southeastern area of AMBA is one of the biggest cities of the metropolitan area and struggles with serious problems regarding water pollution, water scarcity and floods.
LA PLATA SOUTH BASINS
There are four main basins that shape the zone of AMBA. Lujan, Reconquista, Riachuelo Matanza and La Plata South. This last basin covers the area from Avellaneda to La Plata. Its many streams and rivers flow directly into La Plata River through the marshy flood plain. A pronounced topography determinates the limit of a large flood plain with a marshland character.
LA PLATA SOUTH OCCUPATION
The Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires extends its urbanized zone along the coast of La Plata River toward the city of La Plata, almost connected. The urban zones are spoiling and occupying marshlands in the flood plain. It is the case of the neighborhood of La Ribera in Quilmes and several new gated communities under consolidation in the city of Berazategui.
LA PLATA SOUTH TOPOGRAPHY
The flood plain is continuous from the edge of the city of Buenos Aires, limited by the Matanza River, to the city of La Plata. A sharp topography shapes the original area of Quilmes and brings the floodable area inland through the arroyos in the western side of Quilmes.
