Energetic and environmentally sustainable urban development proposals for hillside arid zones: Mendoza Argentina

The growth of the Metropolitan Area of Mendoza towards the hillside sector has deteriorated its environmental quality, negatively impacting the city's sustainable development. This research aims to propose and evaluate urbanization schemes that improve energy efficiency and respond to the environmental conditions of the piedmont. To this end, twelve urbanization schemes that incorporate sustainable design criteria were proposed and simulated using ENVI-met. They are the result of the analysis of design variables that determine the thermal response of the current developments in the hillsides and of the planning and regulation guidelines followed internationally. The results show that all the proposals improve the thermal and environmental condition of the existing developments, the magnitude of the impact being greater on land with slopes less than 15%. They represent 70% of the land for development, highlighting the potential impact of the application of the proposals analyzed.