Its urban boundaries are: to the north with Los Andes of the Valparaíso region, to the west with Colina, to the southwest with Vitacura and Huechuraba, to the south with Las Condes and to the east with San José de Maipo.
Its pre-Hispanic inhabitants were called huaicoches (in Mapudungún: waykoche 'people who live in a landslide zone') because of the huaicos or huaycos of the region (in Quechua: wayqu 'stream').
Also called lloclla (in Quechua: lluqlla 'alluvium'), these are violent alluvial floods in which a large amount of material from the slopes is dislodged and dragged by the water downstream to the bottom of the valleys, causing enormous burial sites in its path.
[4] The urban center of Lo Barnechea is located in the areas below 1,000 meters above sea level, in the basin of the Mapocho River and the valley of La Dehesa.
Their stories about the mythical trips to the Laguna del Viento in the foothills of the Andes and the local mythology enlivened the village's social gatherings in the afternoons.
The architecture in the area of buildings is very scarce, with a few late colonial style houses located preferably in the so-called Pueblo de Lo Barnechea.
Also noteworthy is the large number of mansions and luxury homes that are established in this commune, especially in the sectors of Arrayán, Los Trapenses and La Dehesa, being these of various styles built mainly during the last twenty years and belonging to the so-called "upper class" of the country, making up one of the areas with the highest average housing prices in Chile.
There is an elevator on Cerro 18 operated by the Municipality of Lo Barnechea that connects this sector with Los Quincheros Street and the top of the hill, where the Parque de la Chilenidad is located.
In the annual distribution of rainfall, and considering the entire mountainous area, when it rains several days in a row, large flows are produced in the riverbeds, which causes flooding by accumulation and its consequent transfer according to slopes (1982-84-87).
The impact was regrettable, with loss of life, interruption of activities, damage to infrastructure and equipment, due to the permanence of inhabitants on the banks of the Mapocho River.
The repetition of a similar event, under the current conditions of occupation and urban expansion in Lo Barnechea, could cause even more catastrophic situations, due to the high degree of intervention and modification to which the natural system has been subjected by the construction that has taken place on increasingly higher ground.