Urban Issues
Municipal Solid Waste and Its Environmental Impacts: Changing Reality of Small Brazilian Municipalities Through Better Managerial Practices
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rafael Deus, Fernando Mele, Karina Vieira, Barbara Bezerra, Battistelle Rosane
Cities are highly resource consuming, which causes environmental pressure and consequently negative impacts on the environment. Smaller municipalities have a significant challenge in management; since they are the majority in Brazil. The objective of this study is to analyze the environmental impacts, which include the consumption of energy and emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), from the small municipalities of the state of São Paulo. The study also creates a classification of cities —using multiple indicators—and lists the management practices of the best-ranked cities. The five stages of this study are: phase 1. selection of municipalities; phase 2. data collection (inputs); phase 3. application of Waste Reduction Model; phase 4. analysis of results (outputs); phase 5. construction of the multiple indicator and comparison between municipalities. The results show that waste generation averaged 223.89kg (inhabitant-1 year-1), the emissions of CO2e averaged 0.166 tons (inhabitant-1 year-1), the consumption of energy was an average of - 51.37 kWh (inhabitant-1 year-1)—the negative value indicates energy savings—and the Waste Quality Index related to the landfill averaged 8.63, with most of the final destination sites meeting suitable conditions for landfill. After the composition of the multiple indicators, the best municipalities were carefully analyzed to identify their actions. We highlight the city of Ribeirão Grande/SP, although it has a landfill with 7.4 points (WQI), has a great recycling program. The results of the indicators and the best practices can guide the decisions of each small municipality towards the improvement of more sustainable waste management.
Sustainable Urbanism Mapped within Ten Minute Access: Mixed-use, Nature, Density and a Three-mile Transect
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David A. Driskill
Cities in Texas, pre-1945, with a three-mile transect represent a livable and sustainable model for modern cities. The initial three-mile transect cuts through a dense, mixed-use downtown surrounded by a warehouse district and edged with streetcar suburbs and nature. The same three-mile transect today is less populated in the downtown, with a livable midtown and intown suburbs, increasingly, the home of millennials. In an ideal transition, the three-mile transect has a downtown population density of 20 per acre, midtown population density of 10 per acre and a residential district with a population of 6 per acre. This pattern is sustainable with the reinstatement of streetcars, 10-minute hailed-rides to the city in electric vehicles, 10-minute bicycle trips and 10-minute walkable centers. Flipped, the three-mile transect becomes a multicentered city with centers located on the existing beltway. The multicentered city is anticipated by Ebenezer Howard in “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” (1902). This study maps Texas cities for livability and sustainability using the three-mile transect, mixed-use, access to nature, and density of employment and population. Livability is defined by the individual. Choice of housing type is essential, as is the proximity of employment, services, shopping, recreation and nature. Sustainability is reinforced through smaller living accommodations and 10-minute access via a variety of transportation options. Maintenance of natural features, parks, and green everywhere contribute to cooling the urban environment and cleaning the air of pollutants and carbon dioxide. Livability and sustainability are integrally linked for a healthy and beautiful city.
Social Sustainability and Its Relevance in Current Development Scenarios: An Anthropological Approach from Patton and Kurari Villages, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sarbjeet Singh
Sustainable development has been an important factor in the current development scenario and in various planned processes of urban intervention across the world. While economic and ecological concerns were discussed in most writings on alternative sustainable structures, the social sustainability component remained generally neglected. In recent times, the Punjab government has taken urban development initiative very seriously to increase state revenue. One of the most recent ventures toward this initiative is Aero-City Expansion which is being developed in the vicinity of S.A.S. Nagar by GMADA, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab. The present study is based upon qualitative approach in which an in-depth interview of 40 respondents was conducted from two village Patton and Kurari villages where 1300 acres of land had been proposed for Aero-City Expansion. The prime objective of this paper is to ascertain the local people’s perception regarding this development project. This caveat becomes important because it emerged as one of the most serious concerns in field narratives recorded for the present research paper. It became the major cause of rising social tensions between people and the state and also created unforeseen ruptures in social relations.
