Bio-Infrastructures for Air Decontamination: Urban Forests and Car Traffic in Cuenca

• In Event: Remediating Remediation: Imagining Alternatives for Assessing and Redressing Environmental Harm - II

Abstract

This paper investigates how urban forests can become air pollution capturing bio-infrastructures aimed to reduce transportation greenhouse emissions in Cuenca, Ecuador. Through interdisciplinary ethnographic research, including long-term participant observation, environmental engineering laboratory measurements, and air pollution data analysis, we study urban forests' capacity to absorb dust, toxins, and contaminants produced by the city's vehicle fleet. We depict the application of a tree census in Cuenca aimed to create an urban forest catalogue of tree species planted at parks and street medians. The survey belongs to a broader environmental governance strategy developed by public and private local institutions in response to increasing air quality concerns and pollution-related public health problems. Our research team has joined this interdisciplinary and inter-institutional effort to explore the role urban forests in decontamination policy initiatives based on green urbanism. Methodologically, we analyze through laboratory testing the capacity of tree leaves' to capture air pollution and georeference their location. We also measure air quality with bio-indicators at various monitoring points within Cuenca's transport infrastructure. Finally, we ethnographically trace how these datasets travel from points of collection to laboratories to transport regulators to urban planers, and by way of doing so, we question whether and how the city's transportation system is currently being designed and built in view of environmental data capacities.

Author

• Ronny Rafael Zegarra, Kaleidos - Centro de Etnografía Interdisciplinaria (Universidad de Cuenca & FLACSO Ecuador)