Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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the creation of new green space through rezoning, property condemnation and
public works projects;
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the implementation of structural axes to facilitate the flow of traffic and create
access to decentralized mixed use centres along these axes of development such
as sports and recreational centres, commercial outlets and lifelong learning
'lighthouses', including libraries and public Internet facilities;
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the introduction of an Integrated Transportation Network using speedy bi-
articulated buses and iconic tubular bus shelters and a clearly designated route
managed by a public-private company. Car traffic has declined markedly and
atmospheric pollution is lower than in all the other major Brazilian cities.
Transportation access has been a major plank in the city's employment and
economic development programmes.
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the design and development of the Cicdade Industrial de Curitiba in the south-
western part of the city which, thanks to attractive financial incentives, from
the mid 1970s on attracted a considerable amount of industrial relocation;
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the implementation of small-scale incremental quick-return projects projects,
most famously the pedestrianization of Rua das Flores over the course of one
weekend, thanks to the help of armed police and the employment of vagrants
to keep the new mall clean. Other projects have included 'cohab' infill housing
and decentralized medical care through the creation of six outpatient clinics
open twenty four hours a day.
Lerner has articulated a form of whole systems thinking that is far from being
apolitical. For Moore, Curitaba's regime of sustainability has been based on a clientlist
system that has often been occluded by the effective marketing and publicity strategies
the city has initiated. Unlike Porto Alegre, Curitiba has not garnered a reputation
of citizen democracy, participatory budgeting or socio-economic equality though
efficiency is something that does stand out, although for Macedo this has been at
the expense of the wider city region:
Curitiba has always been planned as if it were an 'island', which contributed
to endemic problems in the other municipalities of the metropolitan region.
A regional approach to planning is long overdue. As long as Curitiba is surrounded
by poverty, it cannot be held as a model of successful planning nor called a
'social capital'. Until there are no families settling in riparian areas within the
water supply watersheds of metropolitan Curitiba, it cannot be dubbed 'the
ecological capital.'
(2004: 548)
Although elements of the Curitiba experience, such as the articulation of a strong
set of core values, integrated planning processes, the creation of an independent
municipal planning authority and the establishment of a close relation between
transport planning and land use legislation are probably replicable elsewhere, the
context and the culture in which this occurred are perhaps not. For North American
commentators such as Robert Brulle (2000), environmental problems are social
problems requiring social learning and democracy rather than an enlightened
despotism; for Joseli Macedo, 'the institutional and political structures that made it
possible for Curitiba to become a symbol of sustainable planning are not easily
