OMEGA Seminar: Toward More Holistic Approaches to Mega Transport Project Appraisal in Latin America
Lessons from the Bus Rapid Transit Project in Bogotá, Colombia

All are welcome and participation is free. This is a Zoom event, please register via Eventbrite above.
Dr. Oviedo’s presentation examines the evolution of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure to a fully integrated public transit system and its effects on social and spatial inequalities in the rapidly changing and socially segregated urban environment of Bogotá, Colombia. Building on concepts of accessibility and social exclusion plus concerns for transport-related inequalities, this presentation combines conceptual and empirical elements of urban development and transport planning analysis to frame a critical perspective as to what ‘success’ means for public transport megaprojects such as BRTs not only for the city of Bogotá and Latin America more generally but also for the Global South. Drawing on research spanning a decade, this presentation reveals how a growing public transport system influenced by a major new infrastructure investment project can contribute to structural urban transformations, reflecting among other things, how events such as health emergencies can call into question the role of large infrastructures for urban development.
This seminar is the third of this academic year’s OMEGA Seminar Programme and is to be delivrered live on-line via UCL’s Zoom platform (see above cited http details). It is scheduled to take place over 90 minutes of which approximately 40 minutes is to be assigned to the seminar presentation and 20 minutes for two panel discussants to comment on the seminar paper presented prior to a live Q&A session of 30 minutes. The seminar will be chaired by Prof. Harry T. Dimitriou, Director of the OMEGA Centre, UCL. The event will be recorded and posted on the OMEGA Centre website (http://www.omegacentre.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/).
Seminar Presenter: Dr Daniel Oviedo
Panellists: Juan Alberti and Professor Julio D Davila
Juan Alberti
Consultant
Inter-American Development Bank, Washington D.C.
Juan Alberti is an international researcher and consultant in the field of infrastructure development. His work is focused on infrastructure policy analysis and megaproject planning, appraisal and delivery. He currently works as an external consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), with previous experience working for the public and the private sector in several countries, and other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and various United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO, IOM). At present he is a PhD candidate in the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London. He holds a Master's Degree of Infrastructure Planning and Management from the University of Washington, and a BA in Economics from Universidad ORT Uruguay. In the past 10 years, he has worked in energy, transport, water and sanitation, and telecommunications in several Latin American and the Caribbean countries, namely: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, México, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Dr Daniel Oviedo
Daniel Oviedo is a civil engineer with an MSc in Transport Planning and a PhD in Development Planning. Daniel has over 12 years of experience as a researcher and lecturer in transport and development in the UK and overseas. His research and consultancy focus on urban and interurban transport, having worked in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the UK. Daniel specialises in the social, economic, and spatial analysis of inequalities related to urban transport and policy evaluation in developing countries. He has been an advisor for various national governments, including Colombia, Peru, Panama, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank on issues related to transport planning, social equity and sustainability. He is the director of the International Network for Transport and Accessibility in Low-Income Communities (INTALInC) in Latin America and the Caribbean (intalinc-lac.com).
Prof. Julio D Dávila
Julio D Dávila is Professor of Urban Policy and International Development at UCL. A civil engineer and urban development planner with international experience in research and consultancy projects in 15 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Prof. Dávila's research focuses on the role of local government in progressive social and political transformation in developing countries; the governance dimensions of urban and peri-urban infrastructure (transport, and water & sanitation); the intersection between planning and urban informality; and linkages between rapid urbanisation and health.
Between September 2012 and August 2020 Prof. Dávila was the Director of The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. He has taught at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town, and has lectured in several universities around the world. He has had advisory roles for institutions and projects including at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellín campus), the British Academy, and Children Change Colombia (a UK-based charity). He has been a consultant to international organisations such as The World Bank, GIZ and DFID, among others. He has been interviewed by prestigious international media, such as The Economist, The New York Times, BBC and the Wall Street Journal, and appeared in a 2020 BBC documentary. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK). Prior to UCL, he was a research fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London and Buenos Aires, under the leadership of the late Argentinian urbanist and historian, Dr Jorge E Hardoy. In 1988 at IIED he co-founded the journal Environment & Urbanization (Sage), one of the most influential and widely quoted international journals in the urban field.
As a young graduate civil engineer in his native Colombia, he worked as a planner and researcher at the National Planning Agency (Departamento Nacional de Planeación), where he contributed his knowledge on self-help housing in Bogotá to the country’s first National Housing Plan.
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes