Evaluación de los procesos de estructuración ecológica del territorio a escala regional: estudio de caso plan de ordenamiento territorial departamental del Valle del Cauca 2015-2019.

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative and descriptive-evaluative research is to analyze the environmental organization processes of the territory - at a regional scale - starting from the formulation of the Departmental Territorial Ordering Plan of Valle del Cauca (Colombia) as case study, within the framework of the first compliance horizon (2015- 2019) of the Regional Action Plan for the Management of Biodiversity and its Ecosystem Services in Valle del Cauca. Methodologically, documentary review is used as a data collection technique. Both data collection and analysis are carried out in a parallel and iterative way. The main data analysis techniques used are open coding, constant comparison and selective coding, which favor the organization and structuring of the data, the definition of categories of analysis and, finally, the interpretation of data. After the ex-ante structural level evaluation, it can be concluded that in the formulation of the Departmental Territorial Ordering Plan, 43.5 percent of the environmental determinants were incorporated as an integral part of the natural base of the Valle del Cauca department; what allowed to include on the Territory Occupation Model the restrictions and benefits of biodiversity and its ecosystem services in coherence with the National Policy for the Comprehensive Management of Biodiversity and its Ecosystem Services, particularly regarding to ecological structuring of the territory. The reasons for the non-incorporation of certain determinants lie mainly in the fact that the elements have zero or low connectivity characteristics and lack of prior environmental zoning.