Abstract

Coyhaique (Chile) is the city with the highest pollution rates for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Latin America, due to the fact that 94% of the urban population uses firewood as a source of energy for cooking and heating homes. This added to the climatic and geomorphological conditions of the basin where it is located; and to the meteorological phenomena of thermal inversion in cold months that prevent the dispersion of pollutants. The objective of this methodology is to spatially model the epidemiological risk of respiratory diseases at the block level, based on variables that constitute the socio-environmental components of Coyhaique city in the years 2015 to 2019. The incidence of respiratory diseases in the urban residential environment is modeled, incorporating the components of the built environment by society and those of the physical-natural environment. The model will help assess the environment's impact on disease burden in the population, i.e., the impact of citie's socio-environmental components such as housing, distance from green areas, and demographics. In the urban space there is a socio-environmental determination of respiratory diseases, associated with urban life that interact and affect the saturation of the air with particulate matter. By identifying this spatial distribution of respiratory risk of diseases and how it is composed, priority areas can be identified in which territorial planning instruments and air pollution prevention and mitigation actions can be improved.