“Nova Belém”: the urban expansion and its environmental conflicts
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
The urban concentration in slums is a worldwide problem. Characterized by high demographic rates, poor or informal housing, inadequate supply of drinking water and sanitation, and insecurity of residence tenure, urban slums are present in both developed and underdeveloped countries. The structuring of slums often vary according to the environmentally fragile areas prevalent in each location. Corresponding to 78.2% of the urban population of underdeveloped countries (compared to 6% in developed countries), it presents its third largest demographic index in Brazil, with 51.7 million of slum dwellers. The steep cost of urbanized land, combined with the low purchasing power of the population and the lack of affordable housing alternatives in the formal market or the failure of housing policy for the poorest families, are factors that have driven a large mass of the population to occupy areas environmentally fragile and unsuitable for housing. The very logic of production of the built environment and access to land in the city, results in the formation of slums.
In Brazil, the overwhelming majority of households in slum areas are concentrated in metropolitan regions (MRs) with Belém among the three metropolitan areas with the highest slum population of the country. In this city, the physical characteristics of the site determined the structure of its urban space. Mostly, these settlements are located in flooded or seasonally flooded areas, being ordinarily called baixadas – lowland in Portuguese, characterized by high density, pile dwelling buildings connected by “estivas” (wooden bridges), precarious urban infrastructure and serious environmental problems, for using waterways as sewage and debris destination. In 2010, more than half of the MR population lived precariously.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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