Thinking · Field Observations · Aruba
When Territory Is Misunderstood: The Rooi Example
How a green corridor became a development site — and what that reveals about tourism's territorial logic.
“What appears to be unused land is often not empty at all. It performs functions that only become visible once they are disrupted.”
Ground-level view
Cleared land: exposed soil, removed vegetation, altered terrain indicating preparation for development.
Satellite before
A continuous green corridor with an irregular shape, distinct from surrounding urban blocks.
Map overlay
The rooi corridor as part of a wider hydrological system connecting surrounding areas.
In a residential area of Aruba, what once appeared to be an undeveloped green corridor has been cleared to make way for condominium development. At ground level, the transformation is striking: exposed soil, removed vegetation, a flattened surface where natural terrain once absorbed water and supported plant life.
Seen in isolation, this might appear to be a straightforward development decision — converting unused land into economic value. But when viewed from above, the same space tells a different story.
What looks like empty land is, in reality, structured by function. The irregular, non-linear shape is not accidental — it follows the path of a rooi, a natural rainwater channel that becomes active during heavy rainfall. Mapping overlays make this clearer, showing how the corridor connects to a broader drainage system within the surrounding neighborhood.
Where does the water go now?
Which areas absorb the increased pressure?
What happens when ecological infrastructure is replaced without accounting for its function?
The Territorial System
This shift — from green corridor to development site — is not just a physical transformation. It is a redefinition of space. And it is precisely the kind of situation that sustainability, as currently practiced, is not designed to catch. Project-level environmental assessments evaluate the site. They rarely evaluate the system.
On a small island, that distinction matters. Land is limited. Housing is finite. Infrastructure has capacity. Social systems have thresholds. Growth does not happen in abstraction — it happens in neighborhoods, in pricing, in accessibility, and in daily life.
The transformation of a rooi into a development opportunity is not an isolated event. It is a clear example of how cumulative decisions reshape the territorial system over time.
What This Case Illustrates
Tourism is not neutral. It directs investment, shapes land use, and defines how different parts of the island evolve. The rooi example makes visible what is usually invisible: the territorial consequences of development decisions that appear, in isolation, to be entirely reasonable.
Sustainability cannot be evaluated within the boundaries of a single project. It must be understood within the broader territorial system in which that project operates.
Critical Geography Lens
Alba Millán's Territory & Power framework provides the theoretical grounding for this case — Lefebvre's production of space, Harvey's analysis of capital, and the question of who defines what counts as “vacant land.”
Read: Sustainable Tourism or Sustainable Power? →