Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REMIND (Reimagining Urban Growth in the Mérida Region through Long-Term Adaptive Indigenous Practices: An applied archaeology for sustainable urban development)
Reporting period: 2024-10-01 to 2025-09-30
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
The REMIND project aims to generate leverage for the applied usage of knowledge derived from the Maya indigenous urban tradition benefitting sustainable and equitable alternatives to urban development in the Urban Region of Merida (URM), Yucatan, Mexico. Since the second half of the 20th century URM experiences rapid urbanisation, which has accelerated in the 21st century, predominantly through repetitively patterned large-scale residential urban expansions. Weak urban planning policies and urban construction driven by global land and property markets permit the manifestation of such expansions. The resulting piecemeal urban patterns are problematic because they affect the social and ecological functioning of the urban landscape, blocking and disrupting connectivity, restricting economic opportunities, threatening well-being, disempowering Maya urban heritage and the articulation of identity, and damaging ecological resources and the viability of the urban landscape.
The forces that govern urban growth and development marginalise traditional Maya urban patterns and practices. Yet, indigenous patterns and practices have adapted through over 2,000 years of social-ecological pressures and major societal transitions in the pre- to postcolonial eras, incl. political and economic reform and migration, population growth and decline, colonisation, industrialisation, and nationalisation. Especially in peripheral urban areas and smaller towns, remnants of urban indigeneity can still be appreciated in vernacular design and land use practices. Urban growth that is realised through real estate development operating under permissive policies and monitoring according to globalised notions of housing needs and land tenure threatens these remnants and landscape ecology. The long-term history of adaptation suggests that Maya urban landscapes hold significant value for achieving regionally appropriate sustainable urban development. Yet, archaeological and historical Maya urban heritage and vernacular architecture is exclusively used to serve the tourist economy and to make superficial assertions of cultural identity, disallowing substantive developmental influence.
Thus, REMIND’s research design is two-pronged: 1. It pursues an empirical research methodology which aims to assemble a regionally specific evidence-base on the changes and consistencies in Maya urban landscapes in the long-term, using ~6th and ~13th century archaeological examples, alongside historical and contemporary urban mapping of Merida and its periphery. This spatial data is produced to varying standards, differing according to the nature and purpose of the maps and records produced. REMIND employs research techniques advancing historical GIS and urban morphological methods respecting the particularities of URM. Furthermore, REMIND contextualises such abstract data with urban anthropological and architectural fieldwork in residential samples of disadvantaged traditional satellite towns around Merida. Here development is, in different ways, profoundly affected by expansive urban growth. Standardised mapping, spatial analyses, and data visualisations enhanced by the rich experiential context provided by the fieldwork will form a guide, inspirational motivator, and resource in the second prong of the research actions. 2. REMIND identifies and mobilises key authoritative and institutional stakeholders in the sustainable urban planning and design of URM, concerning city, municipal, state, and federal government bodies. Through two workshops followed by a short period of collaborative work on actionable joint outputs, it leverages a historically integrative perspective on indigenous urbanism among pivotal officials and representatives. Ultimately, the collaborative work should define, illustrate, and distribute a series of co-created reimaginative ‘indigenous urban development principles’. Focusing on the fieldwork towns ensures that these principles – e.g. design codes, planning advice, and strategic schemes redressing fundamental issues in urban land cover and land use divisions and distributions – can be formulated in co-productive response to site-based urban development challenges with potential to promote sustainable and equitable opportunities in regional urban life.
The forces that govern urban growth and development marginalise traditional Maya urban patterns and practices. Yet, indigenous patterns and practices have adapted through over 2,000 years of social-ecological pressures and major societal transitions in the pre- to postcolonial eras, incl. political and economic reform and migration, population growth and decline, colonisation, industrialisation, and nationalisation. Especially in peripheral urban areas and smaller towns, remnants of urban indigeneity can still be appreciated in vernacular design and land use practices. Urban growth that is realised through real estate development operating under permissive policies and monitoring according to globalised notions of housing needs and land tenure threatens these remnants and landscape ecology. The long-term history of adaptation suggests that Maya urban landscapes hold significant value for achieving regionally appropriate sustainable urban development. Yet, archaeological and historical Maya urban heritage and vernacular architecture is exclusively used to serve the tourist economy and to make superficial assertions of cultural identity, disallowing substantive developmental influence.
Thus, REMIND’s research design is two-pronged: 1. It pursues an empirical research methodology which aims to assemble a regionally specific evidence-base on the changes and consistencies in Maya urban landscapes in the long-term, using ~6th and ~13th century archaeological examples, alongside historical and contemporary urban mapping of Merida and its periphery. This spatial data is produced to varying standards, differing according to the nature and purpose of the maps and records produced. REMIND employs research techniques advancing historical GIS and urban morphological methods respecting the particularities of URM. Furthermore, REMIND contextualises such abstract data with urban anthropological and architectural fieldwork in residential samples of disadvantaged traditional satellite towns around Merida. Here development is, in different ways, profoundly affected by expansive urban growth. Standardised mapping, spatial analyses, and data visualisations enhanced by the rich experiential context provided by the fieldwork will form a guide, inspirational motivator, and resource in the second prong of the research actions. 2. REMIND identifies and mobilises key authoritative and institutional stakeholders in the sustainable urban planning and design of URM, concerning city, municipal, state, and federal government bodies. Through two workshops followed by a short period of collaborative work on actionable joint outputs, it leverages a historically integrative perspective on indigenous urbanism among pivotal officials and representatives. Ultimately, the collaborative work should define, illustrate, and distribute a series of co-created reimaginative ‘indigenous urban development principles’. Focusing on the fieldwork towns ensures that these principles – e.g. design codes, planning advice, and strategic schemes redressing fundamental issues in urban land cover and land use divisions and distributions – can be formulated in co-productive response to site-based urban development challenges with potential to promote sustainable and equitable opportunities in regional urban life.
Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far
The empirical ground work carried out during the research stay (outgoing phase) in URM encountered significant challenges with regard to the existence, readiness, accessibility, and the general state in which expected historical data for the city was found. Therefore, the methodology of the project was adapted to take on additional work and training in research methods not previously anticipated. In the return phase in Europe, the project grappled with the consequences of the national, regional, and local elections in Mexico, undoing much of the intersectoral and professional networking in the region in anticipation for later co-productive and collaborate work. In organising the major co-productive research programme, setting up the required partnerships and its facilitation the project dealt with severe complications in collaboration and communication within the project consortium, including the support and participation of the host institutions. These challenges combined did impact what was possible to achieve within the project in terms of originally planned output and already adjusted results. It was made a priority to demonstrate the value and cogency of an applied archaeological approach to regional urban planning and design and the production of actionable knowledge and generating leverage for planning experimentation.
Significant progress was made with the adopted project of a Digital Edition (in classified vector GIS data) of the first comprehensive and reliable city plan of Merida from 1864-5. The disparate data contributions of student assistants has been integrated into a single dataset, revised, and made consistent for data structure and representative standards, while the geographical coverage has been expanded. Well over half of the vector GIS data is now finished and an improved workflow will make finishing and research dataset publication along with the workflows much more feasible. This Historical GIS data layer is a pivot and precursor for diachronic comparisons and urban morphological analyses.
The project achieved the most comprehensive digital collection of historical town (and settlement) plans for Yucatan, focused on the vicinity of Merida, assembled through digital and in person archival work (photography and documentation of metadata and basic descriptors) across five different archives holding regional cartographical material and historical aerial photography cover. The archival work confirmed few partial historical town plans and no earlier comprehensive map for Merida. It also included historical cartographical work on understanding the map itself and comparing the different prints and versions surviving. In the final year the focus was on pursuing collaboration to establish an online database platform for iterative further documentation and growth of the thematic digital collection, including GIS based discoverability and browsing. This is potential for a future research infrastructural project. The initial planned output will focus on a catalogue and rationale for the collection so far in a digital publication.
A 10 residential block strong longitudinal sample dataset of detailed urban land cover mapping was achieved in vector GIS using historical cartography, historical aerial photography, and contemporary aerial imagery from free services (Google, ESRI, Bing in particular thanks to availability in QGIS). Dataset construction involved data selection and acquisition, and map and imagery interpretation, which included a measure of reconstructive mapping to achieve comparable data quality in 1864, 1930s, 1948, 1979, and 2024 (extant 1965 imagery was discarded on the basis of poorer visual clarity for this purpose). This data was of use in several project activities and conference dissemination, as well as first line descriptive identifications of urban morphological processes, densification, and the influence of and loss of vernacular constructions. Execution and dissemination of comprehensive spatial analysis is the next step.
The work on time series assessment of green space loss across different urban morphological development contexts in the region was not possible to realise as a research collaboration due to insufficient means to hire research assistance and lacking availability of potential collaborators. This aspect of the original project was thus reshaped into a Geography master’s thesis project, which started just as the project’s runtime ended.
Several months of regional fieldwork was realised in Caucel, Kanasín and Komchen. Initial efforts were curtailed by adverse weather events, slow progress in challenging local climate conditions, and dependence on availability of local contacts for safety and to organise public participation. Fieldwork was multimethod, incl. photographic recording, form-based property registration, cartographical annotation, walking urban transects, visits to residential patios to record land-use and spatial divisions (boundaries), and semi-structured explorative interviews. The information retrieved was fundamental to the planning of the setting goals for the two co-productive workshops towards actionable scientific outcomes. The initial efforts in the outgoing phase did not achieve sample parity, so learnings were used for a complementary collaborative exploration exercise expanding the methodological arsenal during the co-productive workshop (charrette) in Mérida, June 2024. This information forms part of the evidence base and analyses of a final report (book form) and executive summary with policy and practice recommendations and strategic spatial design demonstrations in preparation for 2026. There is potential to carry out more comprehensive analyses of the rich data captured through both interview campaigns.
The archaeological topographical GIS data was acquired from external projects to enable comparative analyses, the potential of which was explored in a custom developed programme for a group of advanced students participating in the pedagogical innovation week at ULB. Visual and descriptive comparisons are being used as part of the regional evidence base for the final report and executive summary on policy recommendations. There is potential for further analyses alongside the previously described datasets the project produced.
Networking through in person meetings with a variety of institutional representatives carrying responsibility for urban planning and design in the region was carried out and commitments for workshop participation acquired. Since the first workshop could not be organised in Brussels in my absence, a long postponement meant that the networking and regional stakeholder evaluation was compromised and partnerships and interest needed to be re-established at distance from Brussels. Quality and reliability in the commitments was lost in this process, and compromised the first preliminary workshop and the opportunity to coordinate goals collaboratively. It did not prohibit the organisation of an ambitious extended second workshop.
Both the first and second international transdisciplinary cross-sectoral workshops were organised and delivered. Despite adverse conditions and institutional contexts, the crucial second workshop (charrette) ‘Haciendo el Paisaje Urbano de Merida Viable’ achieved approval and representation of local commissaries, municipality, state, and federal level government bodies on urban planning, and achieved collaboration between (private) practitioners and designers, researchers, and students. Convening an international co-leadership for the charrette, it was possible to go beyond the initial objectives and actually produce initial design and planning ideas and parameters for interventions and development strategies. Subsequent work between the co-leadership further developed these ideas into full-blown multiscalar regional analyses and comprehensive regenerative spatial development strategies for the towns of Caucel, Kanasín, and Komchen, representing a range of landscape-based heritage-led social-ecological alternative proposals to deal with the variety of adverse urban expansion contexts in Merida’s fast expanding periphery. Foregrounding an integral perspective of indigenous urbanism and a novel conceptual position recognising vernacular patterns as social-ecological spatial capital and identifying elements of Maya indigenous urban form as promoting co-productive social-ecological relationships, these design and planning proposals have been structured for a final report (in book form) and executive summary in preparation.
Significant progress was made with the adopted project of a Digital Edition (in classified vector GIS data) of the first comprehensive and reliable city plan of Merida from 1864-5. The disparate data contributions of student assistants has been integrated into a single dataset, revised, and made consistent for data structure and representative standards, while the geographical coverage has been expanded. Well over half of the vector GIS data is now finished and an improved workflow will make finishing and research dataset publication along with the workflows much more feasible. This Historical GIS data layer is a pivot and precursor for diachronic comparisons and urban morphological analyses.
The project achieved the most comprehensive digital collection of historical town (and settlement) plans for Yucatan, focused on the vicinity of Merida, assembled through digital and in person archival work (photography and documentation of metadata and basic descriptors) across five different archives holding regional cartographical material and historical aerial photography cover. The archival work confirmed few partial historical town plans and no earlier comprehensive map for Merida. It also included historical cartographical work on understanding the map itself and comparing the different prints and versions surviving. In the final year the focus was on pursuing collaboration to establish an online database platform for iterative further documentation and growth of the thematic digital collection, including GIS based discoverability and browsing. This is potential for a future research infrastructural project. The initial planned output will focus on a catalogue and rationale for the collection so far in a digital publication.
A 10 residential block strong longitudinal sample dataset of detailed urban land cover mapping was achieved in vector GIS using historical cartography, historical aerial photography, and contemporary aerial imagery from free services (Google, ESRI, Bing in particular thanks to availability in QGIS). Dataset construction involved data selection and acquisition, and map and imagery interpretation, which included a measure of reconstructive mapping to achieve comparable data quality in 1864, 1930s, 1948, 1979, and 2024 (extant 1965 imagery was discarded on the basis of poorer visual clarity for this purpose). This data was of use in several project activities and conference dissemination, as well as first line descriptive identifications of urban morphological processes, densification, and the influence of and loss of vernacular constructions. Execution and dissemination of comprehensive spatial analysis is the next step.
The work on time series assessment of green space loss across different urban morphological development contexts in the region was not possible to realise as a research collaboration due to insufficient means to hire research assistance and lacking availability of potential collaborators. This aspect of the original project was thus reshaped into a Geography master’s thesis project, which started just as the project’s runtime ended.
Several months of regional fieldwork was realised in Caucel, Kanasín and Komchen. Initial efforts were curtailed by adverse weather events, slow progress in challenging local climate conditions, and dependence on availability of local contacts for safety and to organise public participation. Fieldwork was multimethod, incl. photographic recording, form-based property registration, cartographical annotation, walking urban transects, visits to residential patios to record land-use and spatial divisions (boundaries), and semi-structured explorative interviews. The information retrieved was fundamental to the planning of the setting goals for the two co-productive workshops towards actionable scientific outcomes. The initial efforts in the outgoing phase did not achieve sample parity, so learnings were used for a complementary collaborative exploration exercise expanding the methodological arsenal during the co-productive workshop (charrette) in Mérida, June 2024. This information forms part of the evidence base and analyses of a final report (book form) and executive summary with policy and practice recommendations and strategic spatial design demonstrations in preparation for 2026. There is potential to carry out more comprehensive analyses of the rich data captured through both interview campaigns.
The archaeological topographical GIS data was acquired from external projects to enable comparative analyses, the potential of which was explored in a custom developed programme for a group of advanced students participating in the pedagogical innovation week at ULB. Visual and descriptive comparisons are being used as part of the regional evidence base for the final report and executive summary on policy recommendations. There is potential for further analyses alongside the previously described datasets the project produced.
Networking through in person meetings with a variety of institutional representatives carrying responsibility for urban planning and design in the region was carried out and commitments for workshop participation acquired. Since the first workshop could not be organised in Brussels in my absence, a long postponement meant that the networking and regional stakeholder evaluation was compromised and partnerships and interest needed to be re-established at distance from Brussels. Quality and reliability in the commitments was lost in this process, and compromised the first preliminary workshop and the opportunity to coordinate goals collaboratively. It did not prohibit the organisation of an ambitious extended second workshop.
Both the first and second international transdisciplinary cross-sectoral workshops were organised and delivered. Despite adverse conditions and institutional contexts, the crucial second workshop (charrette) ‘Haciendo el Paisaje Urbano de Merida Viable’ achieved approval and representation of local commissaries, municipality, state, and federal level government bodies on urban planning, and achieved collaboration between (private) practitioners and designers, researchers, and students. Convening an international co-leadership for the charrette, it was possible to go beyond the initial objectives and actually produce initial design and planning ideas and parameters for interventions and development strategies. Subsequent work between the co-leadership further developed these ideas into full-blown multiscalar regional analyses and comprehensive regenerative spatial development strategies for the towns of Caucel, Kanasín, and Komchen, representing a range of landscape-based heritage-led social-ecological alternative proposals to deal with the variety of adverse urban expansion contexts in Merida’s fast expanding periphery. Foregrounding an integral perspective of indigenous urbanism and a novel conceptual position recognising vernacular patterns as social-ecological spatial capital and identifying elements of Maya indigenous urban form as promoting co-productive social-ecological relationships, these design and planning proposals have been structured for a final report (in book form) and executive summary in preparation.
Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)
The project has developed a conceptual position based on indigenous Maya urban form and a demonstration of achieving the ambition to contribute to regional urban planning and design from an applied archaeological vantage taking an integral view of indigenous urban heritage and vernacular practices through time and their value to achieving sustainable and equitable urban life. While initial impact and exposure was achieved through the co-productive charrette, to achieve lasting and substantive influence and impact publication of the final report (in book form) and executive summary is required.
The project achieved the assembly and construction of geospatial datasets of disparate nature and conceptually connect this evidence through urban form characteristics from precolonial urbanism to the present and proposals for the future. It is rare for such longitudinal urban morphological data to be brought together and probably unique for the Maya area. The initial output sampling all of this geospatial data variety accompanied by descriptive spatial analyses to substantiate actionable scientific arguments is the final report (in book form) in preparation.
The project created significant historical geospatial datasets in GIS, pushing the standards for urban historical GIS applications in the wider region. Expected outputs include the Digital Edition of the 1864-5 map of Mérida, a thematic cross-archival catalogue of historical (urban) cartography of Merida and Yucatan, and a sample dataset on the formation of residential urban blocks in 19th to 21st century Merida from reconstructive vector mapping across several time slices. A scoping exercise among researchers and archives was undertaken to generate leverage and prepare the ground for a potential future collaborative drive to establish a Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure, bringing together geospatial mapping data from archaeology until the recent past on an urban and/or regional scale.
The project inspired and motivated the regional public, practitioners, and representation across all levels of government associated with planning about the potential and necessity for urban planning experimentation, leading by example in the cross-sectoral co-productive charrette alongside academics, private sector, and student participants. This culminated in early media and industry attention, and the expression of intent to receive the final proposals resulting from the project and assess their potential for (living lab style) small test cases. A commitment was made to produce not only policy advice, but stimulate stakeholder creation in the case study communities and furnish these with emancipatory advice on sustainable practices.
The project produced comprehensive regenerative spatial development strategies articulated by regional analyses and multiscalar urban planning and design proposals for the traditional satellite towns of Caucel, Kanasín and Komchen. Dissemination of these strategic visions, associated policy recommendations, and advice aimed at local residents in the final report (in book form), will be enhanced by distributing an executive summary aided by local partners to achieve broader potential impact among local communities, practitioners, and policy-makers.
The project achieved the assembly and construction of geospatial datasets of disparate nature and conceptually connect this evidence through urban form characteristics from precolonial urbanism to the present and proposals for the future. It is rare for such longitudinal urban morphological data to be brought together and probably unique for the Maya area. The initial output sampling all of this geospatial data variety accompanied by descriptive spatial analyses to substantiate actionable scientific arguments is the final report (in book form) in preparation.
The project created significant historical geospatial datasets in GIS, pushing the standards for urban historical GIS applications in the wider region. Expected outputs include the Digital Edition of the 1864-5 map of Mérida, a thematic cross-archival catalogue of historical (urban) cartography of Merida and Yucatan, and a sample dataset on the formation of residential urban blocks in 19th to 21st century Merida from reconstructive vector mapping across several time slices. A scoping exercise among researchers and archives was undertaken to generate leverage and prepare the ground for a potential future collaborative drive to establish a Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure, bringing together geospatial mapping data from archaeology until the recent past on an urban and/or regional scale.
The project inspired and motivated the regional public, practitioners, and representation across all levels of government associated with planning about the potential and necessity for urban planning experimentation, leading by example in the cross-sectoral co-productive charrette alongside academics, private sector, and student participants. This culminated in early media and industry attention, and the expression of intent to receive the final proposals resulting from the project and assess their potential for (living lab style) small test cases. A commitment was made to produce not only policy advice, but stimulate stakeholder creation in the case study communities and furnish these with emancipatory advice on sustainable practices.
The project produced comprehensive regenerative spatial development strategies articulated by regional analyses and multiscalar urban planning and design proposals for the traditional satellite towns of Caucel, Kanasín and Komchen. Dissemination of these strategic visions, associated policy recommendations, and advice aimed at local residents in the final report (in book form), will be enhanced by distributing an executive summary aided by local partners to achieve broader potential impact among local communities, practitioners, and policy-makers.