The Importance of Environmental Questions in Territorial Planning The Case of the Environmental Hydric Impact Generated by the Implementation of the Western RegioTram in Bogotá and the Sabana Region

Abstract

The flat and extensive geographic scope that characterizes Bogotá Savanna links the city with a dense network of traditional conurbation populations. In this circumstance, mass transportation is a pressing need that must be solved promptly, efficiently and equitably. In this environment, the proposal arose to recover the abandoned trails of the old train lines for implementing a new system, merging the urban tram and the regional train, officially named RegioTram. This system will solve the high rate of passenger mobility, traveling daily, in round trips, between the city and the urbanized sectors in some of the municipalities of the Savana. This thesis con­siders the relationship between the water-environmental conditions and the planning of the territory. In its development, priority was given to the analysis of the strip of land, urban and rural, adjacent to the line, benefited and affected by the operation of the Western RegioTram mass passenger transport system. The existence of wetlands, streams, swamps, and rivers is testimony to the long-lasting processes in the geological conformation of the Savana. In them, contingent phenomena also occur with cycles of seasonal and periodic floods, which overflow and affect the plain’s water balance and the community’s life. From the study of cartographies, digital images, and official information, data and information on the impact of the environ­mental water system caused by the reuse of the old railway were contrasted. The information review was restricted to locating reliable and credible documentation. Specific research was conducted into the route of the system and the areas where stations will be installed, some urban, most rural, and the yards and sites of technical management of the system.