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UNIVERSIDAD SIMÒN BOLÌVAR DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES ID-2125 TRIMESTER V

FINAL PROJECT ESSAY
 * SANTA CRUZ DE MORA PROJECT**

TEACHER: MAGALY RODRIGUEZ STUDENT: MARIA GABRIELA INOJOSA 08-10556

25th march 2010

**SANTA CRUZ DE MORA**

In the course of “Taller de Urbanismo II”, we have been working on the Analysis of the Physical Environment and the realization of an Sustainable Proposal.

In order to continue with the project of the last trimester (4th trimester), we decided to keep studying the Antonio Pinto Salinas Municipality, specifically the town of Santa Cruz de Mora. This town is located along in the Mocoties Vallley, at the north part of the Venezuelan Andes in the state of Mérida.

The purpose of this project is to identify the natural threats that this sector has. Then detect how vulnerable the inhabitants of this place are and after that unite these variables in order to detect the risks of living in this space.

Our client in this project is the people living in the town of Santa Cruz de Mora, we are doing this study and this proposal in order to give it to the Mayor and through the town hall and all the competent institutions develop the project.

The natural threats are determined by the environment where the town is located, taking as the fundamental variables, the hydrology, slopes, geology, geomorphology, stability, topography. This variable studied separately and then joined together, determine the type of threat. In our study, the threats appeared to be Seismic, Flood and Landslides. The vulnerability is measured by different aspects. These are physical, socio-cultural, economic and political. In this case, the socio-cultural vulnerability refers to the level of education and organization that the town may have. We’ve the inhabitants of Santa Cruz have a standard level of education. Nevertheless, they as a community are particularly organized specially when there is some kind of natural events as landslides, mudslides, earthquakes, etc. The economic vulnerability includes the economic base. They are mostly commercially active, since they have decided not to develop the farming and agriculture. For that reason they depend on the commerce and the products of bigger cities as Mérida, Vigía and Caracas. They also have a political vulnerability, since the institutions are not solid and constant with their projects for the inhabitants.

The most important vulnerability in this case is the physical vulnerability. It includes the material and condition of the edification and the types of urban furniture. In Santa Cruz de Mora, we’ve got different materials: houses walls are built with adobe, cement, concrete, bricks and blocks. The roofs are mostly of zinc sheets and tiles. The most of the structures are in regular conditions. The range of the years they have of built are 10 to 100 (years).

As we went to this town and spoke to the people living there, we were able to ask them to describe the needs they considered they have been missing. With their descriptions and our perception from the specialist point of view, we came to the conclusion that their needs are:
 * Services
 * Public and recreational spaces
 * Efficient and constant transportation

Sensitization about the environment and the threats they’re living with in order to reduce vulnerability and hence reduce the risks of a disaster is our goal in this project.