Assembling the pieces: a framework for the integration of multi-functional ecological main structure in the emerging urban region of Bogota, Colombia

Bogota, the capital of the Republic of Colombia, is a tropical highland city located 2,650 m above sea level. It is the 25th largest city in the world and, among large cities, is also one of the highest. In common with other cities in Latin America, a large part of its urban growth during recent centuries has been unplanned and informal. The introduction of green spaces into urban planning in Bogota began in the mid-20th century, but was first included in official legislation during the 1990s through the concept of Ecological Main Structure (EMS). Initially developed by Dutch scholars, EMS was brought to Colombia via biological conservation practitioners as a means of enhancing biological connectivity in rural and natural landscapes, extended in this case to urban landscapes as a top-level planning instrument. EMS originally included a variety of components, from protected areas and biological conservation tools to environmental urban elements - the emphasis being on biodiversity conservation, without sufficient recognition of specific urban structures and functions. This process led to conceptual disciplinary-based divergence and conflicting political interpretations. The current emergence of EMS as a planning tool for urban regions represents an opportunity for integration, although the risk of divergent interpretations remains, as no integrative conceptual framework has yet been developed. In this paper we review the concepts underlying EMS that have been incorporated within urban and regional planning, especially those of ecological networks and green infrastructure, and also diagnose conceptual and institutional barriers to its current integration, challenges and opportunities which are set in the context of an emerging urban region. We propose a trans-disciplinary framework for multi-level integration of EMS, along a gradient from wild environments to built structures that incorporates emerging concepts such as urban biodiversity, ecosystem services and design in the urban landscape, with the aim of contributing to the creation of an urban landscape that is resilient to environmental change and suitable for human well-being and adaptation.