Neoliberal urbanism, territorial planning and social construction if disaster risk: Sinks in Reñaca norte, Chile

The article seeks to provide evidence to the characterization of a long-standing process of social construction of disaster risk, in which risk-insensitive territorial planning is recognized as the main underlying risk drivers. Through a processual approach, we conclude about the close relationship between neoliberal urbanization processes and the multilevel deployment of business power, which mobilizes real estate developments that have promoted an environmentally predatory urban-tourist expansion for the area of interest and directly influenced in the exposure to disaster risk of residents and built infrastructure. Through the forensic investigation methodology that analyzes the underlying causes of disasters (FORIN), it is possible to deconstruct the situation currently experienced by a group of buildings located in the exclusive coastal residential sector of Cochoa, Reñaca Norte, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region Chile, which they have been categorized as uninhabitable due to two neighboring sinkholes that condition their stability and occupation since august 2023. Located on a fragile ecosystem such as a dune field, there were technical studies that accounted for the risk of overloading it with buildings, however, the recognition of risk was omitted in the respective territorial planning instrument —Communal Regulatory Plan of Viña del Mar— defining the location area as a residential zone.