Estudio de expansión urbana, crecimiento poblacional, consumos energéticos e índices de vegetación en el Área Metropolitana de Mendoza - Study of urban expansion, population growth, energy consumptions and vegetation indices in the metropolitan area of Mendoza

The extensive growth is critical for human sustainability itself in places of fragile ecosystems, such the case of Mendoza. This city with more than one million inhabitants, grows at the expense of a reduced oasis while it is necessary to renew the forms of territorial intervention of fragmented government efforts in six municipalities. The paper studies the relationships between urban expansion, population growth, energy consumption and vegetation indices in the Área Metropolitana de Mendoza (AMM). The results obtained indicate that the urbanized area has grown at a faster rate than the urban population, there being positive correlations with residential energy consumption and negative correlations of vegetation indices with all the variables analyzed. Considering the results, it is necessary to establish guidelines to direct the growth of the metropolitan area towards balanced, sustainable, inclusive and socially equitable development. The article presents the main problems in its systemic dimension, in search of reasonable solutions.