Balance de los accidentes y desastres ocurridos en La Paz, Lima y Quito (1970-2007)

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the events (accidents and disasters of natural and anthropomorphic origin) that affected La Paz, Lima and Quito from 1970 to 2007. This analysis explores conditions of vulnerability and compares the three capitals. Even if they have not been destroyed in the last decades by a calamitous event, all three have been disturbed and very often damaged. However, they have different profiles in relation to the origin of the events that occurred. Although the distinction between how natural and anthropomorphic factors share responsibility in the damage to the capital, it is difficult to establish a general trend. In Lima, the events are more related to anthropomorphic factor, while in La Paz they are more of natural origin. Quito presents more balanced situation. The way that the databases are built tends to favour this outcome. However they also show the difficulty analyzing these events in the highly complex urban milieu. Therefore, the article asks us to think about the limitations in the information that permits this analysis and about the bias and the insufficiencies of the existing databases.

Keywords

• Quito
• Lima
• accident
• disaster
• vulnerability
• databases