Between plaza and peak: a montological perspective on verticality and urbanization in highland Peru

Under the influence of concentrated and extended urbanization,Andean cities and the different altitudinal zones of their“hinterlands”are experiencing profound changes in land cover—from the central plazas up to the highest peaks.The complex regional-geographic characteristics of these socioecological systems,such as the vertical complementarity of land use,require a montological perspective on verticality and urbanization:it transcends disciplinary approaches and can be crucial to properly interpret the trajectories of land cover change and formulate hypotheses for future practiceoriented research.Which trajectories of land cover change characterized altitudinal zones of Andean cities and their surroundings over the last three decades?Are there similarities that allow for the formulation of more general hypotheses?Using the Peruvian cases of Cusco and Huaraz,and combining a traditional altitudinal zonation model of land use in Peru with direct field observations and GIS-based analyses of remotely sensed data from 1991,2001,2011,and 2021,this study identifies the main trajectories of land cover change in the Quechua(>2300–3500 m),Suni(>3500–4000 m),and Puna(>4000–4800 m)regions—and finds insightful similarities between Cusco and Huaraz:(1)an impressive area of built-up land substitutes grassland in the Quechua,which,following regional altitudinal zonation models,is characterized by irrigated and rain-fed cropland;(2)an unexpected expansion of irrigated cropland takes place in the Suni,which,in theory,often lacks irrigation infrastructure and is mostly used for rain-fed tuber cultivation;and(3)a clear change from“other land”to grassland occurs in the Puna—where grassland is thought to predominate,anyway,since pre-Hispanic times.Hypothesizing that these changes reflect the interplay between speculative fallow,agricultural intensification,and ecological restoration,the results can be read as vertically complementary,local manifestations of concentrated and extended urbanization in a formerly peripheral mountain region of the Global South—and they underscore the need to overcome mental city-mountain dichotomies for a socially inclusive and ecologically balanced Andean development between plaza and peak.

Abandoned Altitudes? Decrease and Expansion of Grassland in the Hinterland of Popayán, Southern Colombian Andes

Due to their ecological disadvantages, many mountain regions have experienced land-use abandonment and shrub encroachment on former grassland at higher altitudinal zones--especially during recent decades of urbanization. But does this trend also apply to the hinterland of urban settlements？ By using the Southern Colombian example of Popay^n, a medium-sized city located in the Northern Andes, we can show that the landscape changes observed between 1989 and 2010 can hardly be related to agricultural abandonment. Hypsometric variations of land-cover change indicate that, until 2001, woods or shrubland expanded faster at the lower altitudinal range adjacent to the city than at the more remote higher zones. In contrast, after 2001 grassland areas increased on former woods or shrnbland at all altitudinal belts. Both periods thus present developments that can be interpreted as the result of land-use expansion below 2000 m asl and land-use persistence in the tierrafrla of the mountain city＇s hinterland.