Public space and ecology in Medellin: of the indexes of square meters for inhabitant, to the system of urban green spaces; Espacio publico y ecologia en medellin: de los indices de metros cuadrados por habitante, al sistema de espacios verdes urbanos

This paper constitutes a critic for green urban areas management from the landscape ecology perspective. In the context of urban public space as a reference, the decree No.1504 (1998) about urban public space in the Colombian land planning, and the agreement No.62 (1999) for the Medellin land planning 2000-2010. In the first part the conceptual limitations (from the ecological point of view) of both the decree and land planning in relation lo green areas and city-nature relationships, are highlighted. Green areas are being treated, in fact, as accessory to the urban public spaces and nowadays constitute a functionally disarticulated complex. In the second part the Medellin land planning is examined in detail to show the above-mentioned limitations especially in the absence of an ecological perspective of the urban landscape together with a lack of articulation of private open spaces and green areas. In the third part the new environmental functions of urban green areas are considered, as well as the importance of taking into account and making feasible the interactions among them, under an ecological functioning perspective. Further than an index of square meters per inhabitant. A system of green urban areas and management policies oriented to a greater naturalization are needed. The last part suggests ways of incorporating ecological criteria to the urban environmental management to the urban public space and of course to the planning and management of Medellin urban green areas and its metropolitan area.