Oscar Gonzalez 08/23/2011 CRP 437 - Urban Systems Prof.

Moises Gonzales A Beautiful and Self-Sustainable City

A city that I have always been interested and intrigued by since I first heard about it was the city of Curitiba, Brazil. I was first told about this city by my high-school headmaster who thought that self-sustainability should be something that my generation should be aware of. I found this city even more intriguing once I learned that the master plan of the city included a public transportation sector involving buses, and how the system worked. Curitiba was recently awarded the Globe Sustainable City Award 2010 (http://www.ekonominyheter.se), for a master plan that includes a whole reorganizing of the entire urban space, the inclusion of drainage basins and other means of drainage in the planning process as a staple, managing the environment by including but not limited to reducing costs and waste. The methods involved are trying to be the most efficient when it comes to transportation and reduction of Co2 waste. The reason I found the city to be the most intriguing was the inclusion of public transportation in the remake of the master plan of Curitiba. The plan decided that Curitiba should be connected through public transportation to reduce vehicular traffic, and the central part of the city was constructed in a method so only pedestrian traffic could enter, with outlying commercial areas more in-tune with vehicular and public transportation traffic. Currently, about 85% of Curitiba's population uses the public transportation system (Rabinovitch, 48), and green space

was measured at approximately 51.5 square meters of green space per person (http://noticias.terra.com.br). The architect, and later mayor, Jaime Lerner suggested the controlling of urban sprawl (so as to avoid urban sprawl) along with the planning of the affordable public transit system, and the trinary road system - a road system that involves two sets of vehicular lanes with two lanes each going in different directions, and a middle center section with two lanes reserved only for public transportation in the form of buses. This way the buses are never hindered by vehicles, and can move to and from the stations much quicker (www.curitiba.br). The most recent program that I became interested in was the BioCity program, which was funded approximately by US$175 million and includes five facets of rehabilitation within the city of Curitiba (here shortened), 1) the ornamentation of green space with indigenous plant species, 2) conservation involving the overall society, 3) the preservation of water resources, 4) street tree lining, and 5) air quality and transportation, whose aim is to improve bicycle traffic on an unimproved federal highway (along with linear parks). (http://www.cbd.int) I believe that one of the future facets of Curitiba's master planning will include designs of energy conservation, and a decision to use self-sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources, such as solar and wind power within the city. By doing this, Curitiba wouldn't only be self-sustainable according to the planning of its use of natural resources, but the conservation of energy resources and further reduction in Co2 waste. Curitiba is on that path.

Literature Cited http://www.cbd.int/authorities/casestudy/curitiba.shtml http://www.curitiba.br http://www.ekonominyheter.se/pressmeddelanden/globe-award-2010-the-brazilian-city-curitibaawarded-the-globe-sustainable-city-award-2010,16486 http://noticias.terra.com.br/ciencia/interna/0,,OI1926962-EI299,00.html (in Portuguese, use Google automatic page translator when indicated through Google Chrome) Rabinovitch, Jonas, and Leitman, Josef, "Urban Planning in Curitiba," Scientific American, vol. 274, no. 3, (March 1996), pp. 4653