O futuro das cidades...

1. 75
Cities of the Future in Brazil:
Sustainability and Innovation
ANGELA MARIA GABRIELLA ROSSI AND PETER JOSÉ SCHWEIZER
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,
Escola Politécnica - Centro de Tecnologia, Bloco D, Sala 101
Ilha do Fundão, 21949-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil,
Tel: 00 55 (21) 2562 8055, Fax: 00 55 (21) 2562 7718
gabriella.rossi@deg.ee.ufrj.br, gabriella.rossi@ig.com.br
Abstract
This paper aims to discuss about sustainable local development in Brazil. It is known that big cities
like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have several environmental problems and little cities grow
informally. One of the causes of this situation is the lack of a right integrated urban planning that
involves the participation of community, government and private sector, with the guarantee of
continuity. Otherwise, it begins very slowly in Brazil a new consciousness about environment and
issues about sustainability are more and more in discussion. Difficult is to organise ideas and
methods in order to really change the situation. It is time to take this good opportunity to study more
about integrated urban planning in order to avoid that little cities repeat the same mistakes that have
been done in all these years in Brazil and grow in a sustainable way.
The objective of this work is to show how integrated urban planning methods can contribute to
sustainable local development in Brazil and what are the innovations in the field of urban
sustainability.
This work will be developed firstly through an analysis of the differences between urbanisation in
Brazil and in developed countries. Secondly, urban sustainability is discussed, enhancing this
concept in the Brazilian reality. Thirdly, it is discussed what are the most important innovations to
revert the reality of the cities in Brazil. Fourthly, it is enhanced the importance of saving the little
cities from a chaotic development, describing shortly the experience made through a partnership
between university, public and private sector and community in a little city in the State of Rio de
Janeiro. Lastly, the conclusions confirms the urgency in improving local development methods.
Conference topic: decision-making and strategies of action
Keywords: urban development, sustainable cities, Brazilian cities
BRAZILIAN CITIES IN A CHANGING CENTURY
Differences between urbanisation in Brazil
and in developed countries
A discussion about Brazilian cities needs firstly a short
explanation about Brazilian context. Otherwise, it would be
difficult to understand clearly what the authors want to
explain. It is also very important to think about this problem
without a reductionism that normally is very far from the
reality.
It is always good to remember that Brazil is a country
with continental dimensions, containing big, medium and
little cities, with heterogeneous characteristics in all the
economic, social, cultural and historical fields. These
differences are simple to explain.
If we go back at 1940, we will find a still rural country,
in which approximately 70% of the population lived and
worked in the country. Only 30% of the population lived in
cities which, at that time, normally had a political,
administrative or commercial vocation and did not represent
a great prominence for the economy of the country.
However, during a period of time that corresponds only to a
generation gap, 60 years, Brazilian cities received 82% of
the population of the country [1].
This population growth occurred in special
circumstances and presented higher numbers if compared to
the population growth in European countries. In 2000, only
18% of the whole Brazilian population lived in the country
and in the above mentioned period of 60 years the occurred
changes were so radical that are very far from the
imagination of an urban planner or a normal person that in
the middle of the 21st
century would try to build a scenery
of the future that corresponds to the today reality.
It is right that these changes occurred not only in Brazil.
However, it is important to affirm that the changes in Brazil
had different causes.
In Europe cities grew and were gradually organised,
offering job opportunities for the immigrants. In Brazil, on
the contrary, cities inflated disorderly without offering work
opportunities, without conditions to offer a deserving salary
for a great number of immigrants without education and
resources.
Bigger cities in Brazil were the most problematic. They
suffered with the uncontrolled urban growth and could not
offer planned areas with a minimum of urban services like
drinking water, sewerage system, drainage, garbage
recollection, urban transport and other necessities to the

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76
great number of families that came daily from the rural
areas and also from middle and little cities.
These migrants searched in the big cities the basic
means to survive: home, work, schooling and health.
However, these cities only had place for its inhabitants,
people that had money and education. These people ignored
the necessities of the immigrant but used him as cheap
labour, not only in domestic work but also in private and in
the public sector.
The first and worst problem of the poor migrants that
settled the Brazilian big cities from 1940 to 2000 was
housing availability. Where could be find a place that could
protect the families and how could be given an address for
everybody? As the public administration fast ignored this
problem the immigrants settled themselves in the worst
areas of the cities, like swamps, hills and all the areas
without economic value for the speculators, which were
always active and powerful.
Ignoring the immigrant was a suitable behaviour for the
local governments, the municipal authority. This situation
could be clearly noticed because very little was done to
give these new population reasonable housing conditions
with security and urban services. At one side, the people
was threatened from the police to abandon the invasion
areas. On the other side, politicians used these people for
election purposes.
The beautiful Brazilian cities of the forties and fifties
started to deteriorate from the sixties with the expansion of
the urban poverty, of the informal land occupation in
different parts of the cities that rapidly continue to grow. At
the beginning, these places of poverty were dispersed in the
whole city, but today they have acquired a visibility that
caused a trouble, a disturbance to the formal city.
In 2002 the problems of cities like Recife, Rio de
Janeiro and São Paulo are out of control. The local
authorities did not succeed in solving problems like security
because urban violence became very strong. Although local
and regional governments have tried to legalise informal
settlements in the last twenty years, the actions were not
effective and there is still a lot to do mainly in the field of
giving good sanitary conditions for the poor. Moreover,
there is also the problem of the little investments in the field
of education, technical capacity and the offer of new jobs.
As in European cities the population do not increase, the
municipal authority takes care of the improvement of live
conditions of the urban families. In Brazil the problem is the
same in the last hundred years: public authorities continue
to try to decrease the permanent deficits related to housing,
water supply, sewerage and drainage systems,
transportation, education opportunities and health care.
Urban problems in Brazil, in metropolitan, big and
medium cities, do not have been solved in a global way, but
always partially and punctually. Politicians, administrators
and managers of the city do not plan and design it as a
whole, but as a machine that have parts to be repaired
independently. This mechanistic and immediate vision in
urban management raises difficulties to a sustainable urban
development [2].
SUSTAINABILITY IN BRAZILIAN CITIES
Main concepts adopted about urban sustainability
in the last ten years
Sustainable development was defined as “Development
that satisfies the necessities of the present without endanger
the capacity of the future generations to satisfy its own
necessities” [3]. This definition was the first one and from
this first attempt to define what the world could done for a
sustainable planet other initiatives were made and other
definitions were written. But the essential meaning remains
and is more or less the same.
The point that has to be enhanced is that sustainable
development can have different approaches and priorities in
different countries. In developing countries, poverty and
social inequality must be included in a definition of
sustainability. Other factors can influence and modify the
interpretation of the facts in the national approaches: density
and population demography, geography and natural
disasters, land availability, water supply, energy production
and supply, building sector, building quality and so on.
The main criteria for a sustainable city or human
settlement are: a) protection of life, biodiversity and
cultural environment; b) decreasing of pollution and
efficient use of resources; c) offer of equal economic
opportunities for all, equal distribution of responsibilities
and benefits, ethic business and support for the local
economy; d) improvement of quality of life giving the
population a good environment and opportunities for self
improvement; e) stimulation of social equality and cultural
integrity [4].
About the criteria related to the urban quality the
following actions can be included: a) investments, planning
policies, reconstruction; b) integration of transports and
urban services; c) measures for security; d) measures for
health and social assurance; e) access to education and
leisure; f) increase the participation of public and private
sectors; g) integration of decision making structures; h)
supply success indicators through transparent planning and
development processes; i) property and the sense of pertain.
Reality and tendencies for the Brazilian cities
Arguing about sustainability in Brazilian cities needs
firstly a discussion about a few aspects.
The necessity of a sustainability in production activities
of urban population for the 21st
century is the first aspect.
The job world is changing rapidly and this speed is not
followed by the official educational authorities, neither by
the private responsible. They are not preparing labour for
the immediate future. Without productive activities that
could give income to the people it would be impossible to a
human being to give importance to the quality of the
environment. Environmental improvement could be only
understood from new income and urbanisation levels
because human priority will be naturally always food and
self preservation.
A second aspect is the social sustainability. Cities have
lost the capacity and the possibility of being managed in a
traditional way (municipal, regional and federal
governments). In the field of governability are situated the

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77
basic human needs as for example, housing. A great part of
the Brazilian population do not have a deserving home with
basic urban services. These people leads everyday with
insecurity, not only because the illegality of their homes but
also because the threatening of flood and other disasters.
How can these people think about sustainability?
Security is a third aspect that must be considered as a
priority. Violence grows everyday and the public authorities
have lost the capacity to take command of the police. In
such case, the population tries to find its own means to
protect themselves in a private way, paying professionals
that are not completely prepared for a task that is a public
responsibility.
Considering the tendencies mentioned above it will be
now discussed about what are the innovations that could be
change the situation.
INTRODUCING INNOVATIONS TO REVERT
THE URBAN SITUATION IN BRAZIL
Responsibility, solidarity and community government
Although the scenery given above seems to be
extremely pessimistic for the reality of the Brazilian cities,
it is possible to revert this picture in the future if the
questions related to sustainability do not search for solutions
based in traditional values and structures like hierarchical
centralised policies and the lack of community participation.
Strong central governments must be replaced through
new local governments that will be nearer to the population.
The citizen and its community will not be only spectators of
public decisions anymore, but they will assume a new role.
This role should be based in two essential principles:
• Responsibility, each person assuming part of the duties
that were considered as only a government task;
• Solidarity, each citizen of the community sharing the
competencies and initiatives important for peace,
progress and welfare.
In order to put into practice this innovator role of the
citizenship, it is necessary to create, in the scope of the
constitution (basic law of a country) a new conception of
local government, in order to be nearer of each urban
citizen.
During the design of the new Brazilian Constitution of
1988, it was proposed the creation of a fourth level of
government, named by one of the authors of this paper as
“community government” [5]. In this proposal was
explained the importance of creating new local governments
that could integrate the participation of the community. In
cities with more as 500.000 inhabitants a new local
government could be created without extinguish the existing
municipalities.
Those local governments would be legally elected and
would administrate groups of 50.000 inhabitants with its
own budget and own responsibilities. In order to be
successful this government should be complemented with a
compromise of each citizen in the sense of an active
participation in the management of its part of the city.
The great innovation is the inversion of the traditional
schema of public action from “above to below” (from
federal to municipal government) that continues since the
monarchy time. The responsibilities would be shared
between the new local government and its citizens, and with
the others higher government levels.
Urban planning
Besides the political aspect, another component must be
reviewed: urban planning. Instead of the traditional written
plan without little concrete application, it is time to think
about new procedures to turn urban planning in Brazil a
serious compromise between the local government and the
community.
Planning must be agile, dynamic and flexible, oriented
to people. It is not enough having a set of written papers and
maps that have technical solutions but little political
support. Planning must join social needs, problems
dimensions, technical interpretation of needs and, finally,
the political decision that represents the compromise to
execute what was planned with the real participation of the
population.
Planning is a science, an art and a social technique
always to serve public welfare [6]. The philosophic
conception of planning is rationalistic but its basis is
humanistic because the planner search for the harmony
between human being and the natural environment.
In its essential meaning, planning is an important tool
for sustainability because it tries to consider individual
needs without destroying nature, ensuring a good life
quality for the generations of the future. Among its
scientific and technical meaning, urban planning must
incorporate its aesthetic dimension. The planner should
have an aesthetic vision not only to search the beauty of the
urban landscape components but also the harmony that
ensures the population a deserved life.
What was stated above about urban planning is not new
but unfortunately this tool seems not being right used in
Brazil. Urban planning has been a way for the consulting
enterprises to earn money through the elaboration of books
and maps (named “plans, integrated plans, development
plans” and so on).
Politicians, on the other side, solve problems in an
uncoordinated form, only to gain votes for the next election.
In this situation, there are great loss of financial,
institutional, material and human resources. The result is the
improvisation instead of planned initiatives oriented to
human and environmental needs.
THE RENEWED UTOPIE OF THE
“SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL” OF SCHUMACHER:
THE CYCLE OF THE LITTLE CITIES
Planning sustainable settlements
Among the 25 biggest cities of the world with more as
10 million inhabitants, 19 are in developing countries. This
size of city generates very well known problems.
In terms of Brazil, the increase of violence seems to
create a new cycle, represented by the migration from the
big to the little cities. This process is at the beginning but it
is believable that will continue because of the new
information technologies that connect the people from
different places. Today is possible to work at home and in a
little town.

4. Cities of the Future in Brazil: Sustainability and Innovation
78
In other words, living in a big city in the past was the
only way to have access to work, education, culture and
modernity in Brazil. The little city meant lack of
opportunities and cultural isolation of the rest of the world.
Although the migration starts to change direction, there
is no sign of a political movement in order to organise this
migration and to prepare the growth of the little cities. If the
error persists, these cities that nowadays can offer a better
quality of life, will certainly turn to be chaotic as the others.
It is time to learn from the errors of the past and start to
thinking about a planned and sustainable grow of the little
cities to avoid the same problems and start a new era for the
Brazilian cities.
Thinking about the future of the little cities is a
challenge. New initiatives are occurring in Brazil in these
sense and although they are isolated cases, they will
certainly be the basis for a new approach in the dynamic
process of local and municipal development.
It is important to enhance the role of some Brazilian
public universities that try to work in an holistic form, using
the strategic and sustainable planing for medium and little
cities.
The experience of São José do Vale do Rio Preto
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro) develops a project named
“Project for the Implementation of the Local Agenda 21 in
the city of São José do Vale do Rio Preto”.
It is a city with 20.000 inhabitants, and has 269 km² . Is
located only 140 km far from the city of Rio de Janeiro. The
main aspect of this project is the interest of the local
government in developing the city in a sustainable way with
the technical support of the university.
Based on this fact, a team of researchers of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro decided to build a project in
order to dispose the scientific, technical and artistic
knowledge for the local community and authorities.
With this intention emerged a partnership with the
University of Applied Sciences of Berlin. Together was
defined a set of 42 integrated tasks divided in six great
groups: urban services, education, master plan,
communication and strategic local planning [7].
The project is co-ordinated by both Brazilian and
German universities and the decisions are taken in regular
meetings that join the community, the public administration
and the partners involved.
The expected result of all this process is the
development of a methodology of sustainable urban
planning, obtained with the engagement of the local
community [8].
CONCLUSIONS
The cities of the future in Brazil, like the others all over
the world, require sustainability and innovation. As it was
shown in this paper, the kind of innovation and the type of
work that has to be done in direction of sustainability differs
from one country to another and from one region to another.
The hypothesis for the new cycle of the little Brazilian
cities that is defended in this article is justified by the fact
that a great part of thoughts about sustainability comes from
the examples of the past. Comes from the pre-industrials
models of urban life, formed by a group of little districts
with high density, centralised around a centre of mixed use,
and not so far from the residential areas, that are integrated
through a trustful collective transportation system.
The historic example, that respects the human scale, do
not exclude modern technologies and knowledge that allow
the creation of clean and secure industries, efficient
agricultural methods, healthy procedures of energy
production and democratic management methods.
The structural patterns suggest to fix limits to the urban
growth, a mixed land use, urban renovation and agricultural
reform.
The operational patterns suggest a circular form that
allows an efficient use of resources, transportation and
garbage recollection.
The social patterns suggest an urban environment that
allows the formation of communities with a healthy and
agreeable life.
Finally, the cities of the future in Brazil must develop
new patterns that promote social equality, efficient use of
resources and economic local development.
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