Análisis de conveniencia técnica, económica y ambiental, para la construcción sostenible de viviendas de interés social en Cota - Cundinamarca

Abstract

The housing deficit in Colombia and the accelerated urban expansion of municipalities such as Cota, Cundinamarca, raise the need to rethink the construction model of social interest housing (VIS) from an integral perspective that combines economic accessibility with environmental responsibility. This study analyzes the technical, environmental, and economic feasibility of building an eco-neighborhood of 144 VIS apartments distributed across six six-story multifamily buildings in the municipality's northern expansion area, integrating eight sustainable systems: monocrystalline PERC photovoltaic panels, efficient water management, rainwater harvesting, energy-optimization home automation, household waste separation and composting, a community urban garden, structural clay masonry, and non-structural recycled materials. The research adopted a mixed descriptive methodological approach, in which the technical analysis applied the Mscoring Matrix for micro-siting and the selection of materials and construction systems, determining that the municipality's Northern Expansion Area (LB) is the most suitable zone. Structural clay masonry, which meets resistance levels of up to 15 MPa according to NSR-10, was selected as the main structural system, complemented by precast concrete and non-structural recycled materials within the technical study. The environmental analysis built a detailed baseline of the territory, identified impacts through a cause-effect matrix, and assessed them using the Battelle Columbus and Conesa matrices. It was determined that while traditional construction generates a net loss of 253.5 Environmental Impact Units relative to the baseline, the sustainable model produces a gain of 254.2 units, reaching 816.7 out of 1,000 possible points, particularly in energy efficiency and water management. The Environmental Management Plan structured eight priority sheets ranked according to the Conesa score, addressing four critical impacts in the operational phase and four severe impacts in the construction phase. The economic analysis compared detailed budgets for both models under the same scale conditions: the sustainable model amounts to $33,151,011,400 COP versus $27,279,306,600 COP for the traditional model, representing an incremental overcost of approximately $5,871 million pesos (21.5%). This overcost is justified by the social evaluation, which monetized benefits across five dimensions: savings in public utilities for water (40.8 m³/unit/year), energy (750 kWh/unit/month), and waste (223.2 kg/unit/year diverted from the landfill); avoided health costs from the reduction of ARI and AWD episodes; the generation of 150 additional direct and indirect jobs during construction and four permanent operational jobs; and a reduction of 51.76 tons of CO₂ equivalent annually. Applying the DNP's 9% social discount rate and adjusting costs through price-shadow ratios, the ten-year social cash flow yielded a positive Social Net Present Value (SNPV) of $90,277,599 COP and a Social Internal Rate of Return (SIRR) of 9.58%, both indicators above the minimum viability threshold. These three components of the study converge on the same conclusion: sustainable VIS construction in Cota is technically feasible, environmentally advantageous, and economically justified, demonstrating that sustainability and affordability are not competing objectives but complementary ones within the framework of Colombian VIS housing policy.