Environmental sensitivity indexes in Mar del Plata's surrounding area

Abstract

The Environmental Sensitivity (ES) assessment is an instrument that allows us to determine the environment's capacity to assimilate, contain or reduce certain events which are environment degrading. Such sensitivity is a function of the environmental factors' intrinsic conditions. In this paper we aim at assessing the SE of landscape units within the surrounding area of the city of Mar del Plata, to sustain the main activities developed there. These landscape units were defined through the integration of factors, both from the natural and the socio-economic environment. These were praised with a sensitivity value which is a function of the activities. The integration of the results allowed us to obtain a final index for each of the units, which is: Low (less than or equal to 5), Moderate (between 6 and 9), High (between 10 and 13) or Very High (greater than or equal to 14).