William H Alfonso Piña - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by William H Alfonso Piña

Sustainability, Feb 4, 2016

In recent decades, the majority of cities in developing countries have grown rapidly and have exp... more In recent decades, the majority of cities in developing countries have grown rapidly and have experienced increasing environmental problems. These changes have generated a broad discussion on urban sustainability and development. In this discussion, it is fundamental to establish methods for measuring urban sustainability using a quantitative approach. This research seeks to estimate and evaluate the environmental, social, and economic efficiency of cities in a developing country, Colombia, using data envelopment analysis to determine the changes that occurred between 2005 and 2013. In this study, indicators related to economic, environmental, and social performance are used with the objective of analyzing efficiency from urban sustainability. The results indicate differences among cities, where the efficient cities show adequate resource use, lower environmental impacts, improved social conditions, and guaranteed economic growth and development. Moreover, as the city scale increases, urban sustainability declines. All these findings are important in the formulation and design of adequate urban policies to improve and strengthen sustainability and social welfare over the long term, particularly in cities in developing countries.

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, Apr 2, 2015

In emerging economies, recycling is an opportunity for the cities to increase the lifespan of san... more In emerging economies, recycling is an opportunity for the cities to increase the lifespan of sanitary landfills, reduce the costs of the solid waste management, decrease the environmental problems of the waste treatment through reincorporate waste in the productive cycle and protect and develop people's livelihoods of informal waste pickers. However, few studies have analysed the possibilities and strategies to integrate formal and informal sectors in the solid waste management for the benefit of both. This study seek to make a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis in three recycling associations of Bogotá with the aim to understand and determine the situation of recycling from perspective of informal sector in its transition to enter as authorized waste providers. Data used in the analysis are derived from multiple strategies such as literature review, the Bogota's recycling database, focus group meetings, governmental reports, national laws and regulations and specific interviews with key stakeholders. Results of this study show as the main stakeholders of formal and informal sector of waste management can identify the internal and internal conditions of recycling in Bogotá. Several strategies were designed based on the SWOTs determined, could be useful for Bogotá to advance and promote recycling as a key strategy for integrated sustainable waste management in the city.

instname:Universidad del Rosario, Apr 27, 2009

Journal of Cleaner Production, Mar 1, 2018

This paper discusses the current knowledge and opinions of urban population in a city of a countr... more This paper discusses the current knowledge and opinions of urban population in a city of a country that it is recognized with greater vulnerability to climate change, as it is Bogot a the main city of Colombia. It is important to analyse the opinion of the urban population on climate change, taking into account that in the next years cities will be vulnerable and affected by this phenomenon. This research uses a survey that determine the knowledge, causes and effects of climate change, as well as measurements and information that are required to address climate change issues more fully. The main results suggest that the Bogot a's respondents have heard about climate change and all consider that this phenomenon is a reality. The main effects of climate change according to respondents are droughts and floods, with consequences for health and water, energy and food availability. Moreover, the respondents consider the design and application of adequate measurements that allow adaptation and mitigation to climate change important. The findings of this study are significant for awareness at all levels of urban society of the activities and programs that allow for sustainable development in consideration of climate change.

Environment, Development and Sustainability, Apr 2, 2016

Migration to urban centres is among the most important forces in contemporary urban studies. In t... more Migration to urban centres is among the most important forces in contemporary urban studies. In this paper, we study how the demography and epidemic profile of a community are altered when they transition from living in nomadic conditions in a forested environment to a peri-urban settlement in a city of the Amazon basin. We analyse demographic and epidemic data with a multilevel model to understand individual and community-level effects in terms of the risk of malarial infection. We show that malaria becomes endemic when the population settles in the peri-urban area of the city. We also show that the reproductive rate of women in the group increases as they become sedentary, and that while individual fertility rates have no effect on risk of contracting malaria, population-level fertility rates are associated with malaria endemicity. KeyworDS Amazon / Colombia / demography / malaria / migration / peri-urban / public health I. IntroDuCtIon Since 1900, the total global malarious land area has almost halved, being reduced from 77.6 million square kilometres in 1900 to 39.8 million in 2010. (1) However, almost half of the world population lives at risk of contracting malaria, with a 2015 estimate of 212 million cases per year. (2) Today 3.41 billion people are exposed, more than three times the 892 million exposed in 1900. (3) The decline in malarial incidence and areas at risk, combined with general increases in at-risk populations, suggests the transformation of malaria's epidemiological characteristics. That is, malarial infection risk has become more intense in circumscribed areas around the world. Actual incidence of malarial infection has been declining in the world over the past few decades, but often re-emerging in locations where it was no longer a persistent problem, as shown by the data collected by Nájera et al. (4) about the most severe epidemics in the world during the 20th century. Five countries (India, the former USSR, Brazil, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka) have had epidemics with more than 1 million cases and more

Desafíos, 2010

Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto

Miscellanea geographica, Sep 30, 2014

The most urbanized region in the world is Latin America with almost 80% of its population living ... more The most urbanized region in the world is Latin America with almost 80% of its population living in cities, although it is also one of the least populated in relation to its territory (UN-Habitat 2012). In this region, population growth and urbanization were previously accelerating but these processes are now decelerating. Currently, the evolution of urban populations tends to be limited to natural growth characterized only by an increment of migration between cities, the growth of secondary cities, and the emergence of mega-regions and urban corridors (UN-Habitat 2012). Urban development in this region cannot be described by place-to-place differences in ecological location, population composition, economic growth, employment or income inequality. In general, rural areas in Latin America are considered merely as surrounding areas, whereas, cities and large urban agglomerations are the control centres and urban areas grow significantly at the expense of the rural soil. Several Latin American cities have transformed dramatically due to fast and sometimes forceful processes of urbanization characterized by a deterioration of the environment and social inequality. Latin American cities face an important challenge in the next decades for this region to achieve improvements of the welfare of urban population through more quality, equity, and sustainability in the region, evading again the cycle of underdevelopment, inequality, and unsustainability that has been a feature in recent decades. It must be taken into account that they the population is expected to increase to 604 million and the percentage of total population living in urban areas will constitute 83% of the total population by 2030. (UN-Habitat 2012). In this context, it is important to determine and analyse the trends of urbanization in Latin American cities with the aim of determining previous patterns and to formulate new policies that will allow an adequate urban development model, taking into account the different features in the cities of the region. Latin American studies on urbanization trends have analysed different approaches-for example, Inestroza et al. (2013) characterized urban development and sprawling features for 10 Latin American cities using the GIS tool, determining that there is an underlying fragmentation trend towards increasing sprawl. Cordoba & Gago (2010) evaluated changes in urban Latin American systems in the context of the acceleration of globalisation processes, calculating diverse indicators of connectivity to assess a longitudinal analysis and confirming the contradictory effects of globalisation which cannot only generate opportunities but also aggravate social and territorial inequalities. Dufour &

Este texto presenta estudios sobre las múltiples formas de hispanidad, desarrollados en los últim... more Este texto presenta estudios sobre las múltiples formas de hispanidad, desarrollados en los últimos años por destacados investigadores del mundo hispánico que, poco a poco, han estado construyendo un nuevo espacio de investigación para una creciente y activa comunidad científica. En este libro el lector encontrará estudios con enfoques desde la ciencia política, la teoría política, la historia, la filosofía, la sociología, la economía, los estudios literarios y culturales, entre otras perspectivas académicas. Los aportes de cada aproximación teórica y disciplinar están orientados al logro de una meta común: la de reconstruir y reinterpretar la tradición histórica hispánica, desmantelando prejuicios ideológicamente provocados, con el fin de comprender los fenómenos políticos que la caracterizan. Por las mismas razones este libro se sitúa en el debate sobre las formas de escritura de la historia, que no es sólo un debate de teoría de la historia sino también de filosofía de lo histórico

En este artículo se presenta una reflexión sobre la forma en que se ha incorporado la noción de s... more En este artículo se presenta una reflexión sobre la forma en que se ha incorporado la noción de sostenibilidad ambiental en el ordenamiento físico urbano en Colombia, una aproximación parcial que ha privilegiado algunos componentes físicos de la estructura ecológica, sin considerar suficientemente las implicaciones de aspectos tales como el suelo urbano, las actuaciones de los servicios públicos, las racionalidades de consumo y el metabolismo de la ciudad, los cuales tienen una mayor incidencia sobre la sostenibilidad urbana. El seguimiento a esta tendencia de incorporar herramientas de planeación ambiental estratégica sirve, en primera instancia, para llevar a cabo una reflexión crítica sobre el ordenamiento físico en nuestro medio, la planeación para el desarrollo urbano sostenible, los modelos de ciudad y la participación ciudadana El artículo se divide en tres partes. En la primera se presentan consideraciones sobre sostenibilidad urbana como el marco de la evaluación estratégic...

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 2017

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use attribution theory to identify the factors that contr... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use attribution theory to identify the factors that contribute to the failure of entrepreneurial ventures in Colombia. Design/methodology/approach The research study upon which this paper is based involved an online survey. A total of 324 Colombian entrepreneurs who had experienced business failure answered this survey. The study included six factors (financial, organizational, marketing, external environment, operational, and human resources) with their respective attributions as well as a personality test and segmentation questions. Two multivariate techniques were used (principal component analysis and a multinomial distribution model) to analyze the results of the survey. Findings The results showed that the principal attributions of failure for Colombian entrepreneurs were financial and organizational issues, the external environment, and marketing. Specific sub-issues included insufficient income generated to maintain the business, lack ...

Universidad Colegio Mayor Nuestra Senora Del Rosario Universidad Del Rosario Edocur Repositorio Institucional Disponible En Http Repository Urosario Edu Co, Mar 20, 2010

Construcción de problemas de investigación: diálogos entre el interior y el exterior, 2018

Como una contribucion a la consolidacion de la teoria sobre los modelos de ciudad hispana en los ... more Como una contribucion a la consolidacion de la teoria sobre los modelos de ciudad hispana en los diferentes momentos de colonizacion en America, en este articulo se revisan algunos aspectos de la logica de implantacion de la ciudad espanola en el territorio prehispanico de America, logica que recurrio a diferentes estrategias para el establecimiento y el mantenimiento de este orden urbano, desde incorporar, en el trazado fundacional de la ciudad, las preexistencias de los “naturales” en el territorio, la superposicion estricta de un modelo geometrico riguroso para el reparto del territorio urbano y la ejecucion de diversas acciones en el tiempo para mantener ese orden en un territorio con unas logicas regionales y de uso que se negaron a desaparecer. Se apoya sobre el seguimiento historico a la logica de ocupacion del territorio prehispanico de Tunja, por mantener vestigios de las estructuras territoriales prehispanicas y la estructura urbana de la ciudad espanola, asi como la nocio...