GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS AN ALTERNATIVE IN FRONT OF URBAN EXPANSION IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE

The urban expansionist perspective that governs the Modification of the Metropolitan Regulatory Plan of Santiago de Chile (MPRMS-100), and the absence of an integral management of natural and cultural landscape components, is threatening the integrity of the existing ecological matrix. Given this, the concept of Green Infrastructure is presented as a planning tool, capable of addressing land management aspects, from the spatial to the multifunctional that can reconcile urban growth, social prosperity and environmental protection. In that sense, the article aims to define, from the postulates of Landscape Ecology, the elements for the implementation of a primary Green Infrastructure system in San Bernardo, a peripheral commune(1) of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago. This locality faces important challenges in the future urban context as it concentrates almost 40% of the land proposed to be urbanized by the Plan.