curitiba case study geography

Curitiba Case Study

• First Online: 18 January 2022

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• Maria Elena Zingoni de Baro 5  

Part of the book series: Cities and Nature ((CITIES))

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Curitiba is renowned internationally for its innovative urban transformation initiated in the 1960s, that detaching from the prevailing modernist planning, opted for a humanistic approach instead. The urban planning process incorporated innovative, efficient and low-cost solutions for public transportation, land use and effective environmental programs, making Curitiba become Brazil’s greenest city awarded the UN’s most ecological city title in 1992. This chapter asks why this transformative change towards sustainability occurred in Curitiba, how it was achieved and if the implementation of integrated planning strategies founded in social-ecological approaches led to the emergence of regenerative outcomes in the city. The analytical strategy implemented two phases; firstly, the consideration of local urban planning traditions and processes; and secondly, the application of the framework to three selected planning initiatives that were likely to promote regenerative outcomes. It was concluded that local circumstances and resources, momentum, visionary leadership and local planning culture fostered innovative thinking and work methodologies, planning practices moulded on creativity and effective communication led to international recognition and to citizens’ civic pride. It was concluded that the promising urban transformation lost its regenerative force due to a leadership style centred on the strong personality of the leader and particularly, to the lack of effective community participation that could have contributed ownership and stewardship of the process.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is partially based on the same research that supports the book chapter Footnote 1 titled “The role of regenerative design and biophilic urbanism in regional sustainability: The case of Curitiba”, co-authored with Dr Joseli Macedo, who is aware of this issue.

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Zingoni de Baro, M.E. (2022). Curitiba Case Study. In: Regenerating Cities. Cities and Nature. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90559-0_6

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Developing the Sustainable City: Curitiba, Brazil, as a Case Study

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This chapter seeks to turn the reader's attention from the oftcited practices of European cities to an example further south. It highlights innovations in Curitiba, Brazil, that have been successful in alleviating the interrelated problems of urban growth: sprawl, environmental degradation, and economic inequality. The chapter also highlights Curitiba's innovations and illustrates their relevance to other growing cities. It overviews of Curitiba's history and the basic framework developed to address the challenges attendant with tremendous growth. The chapter discusses specific practices employed by Curitiba to mitigate the negative impacts of growth while addressing the challenges Curitiba still faces. Although Curitiba is the eighth largest city in Brazil, it has the fourth largest GDP, with 66 percent of its GDP produced by the commerce and service sectors given Curitiba's resistance to the expansion of heavy industry. The chapter concludes by exploring how Curitiba's innovations can be applied in other urban contexts, both in the United States and abroad.

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Planning a Sustainable City: The Making of Curitiba, Brazil

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• Journal of Planning History 12(4):334-353
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151. Sustainable City Management - Case Study of Curitiba, Brazil’s Ecological Capital

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In this Geography Factsheet you will find: • Summary of the main features of a sustainable city by the Rodgers model. • Background to Curitiba. • Sustainable development of Curitiba. • The green swap program. • Exam questions and answers.

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• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-90559-0_6
• Corpus ID: 246050042

Curitiba Case Study

• Maria Elena Zingoni de Baro
• Published in Cities and Nature 2022
• Environmental Science, Geography
• Cities and Nature

3 References

Planning a sustainable city, o urbanismo e discursos modelares da curitiba contemporânea, curitiba: towards sustainable urban development, related papers.

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• Road to Rio in the News

Curitiba: A sustainable city in the developing world

Often described as the most  sustainable  city in the world, Curitiba is the state capitol of Paraná in Brazil. Curitiba is largely a result of work by the visionary planner Jaime Lerner.

In the early 1970s, when Brazilian cities were rapidly industrialising, Curitiba accepted only ‘non-polluters’ and built industrial areas with so much green space that they were initially insulted as being "golf courses" until they filled up with major businesses while competitors in other Latin American cities ran into trouble.

The city's 30-year economic growth rate is 7.1%, higher than the national average of 4.2% , and its per person income is 66% higher than the Brazilian average. Between 1975 and 1995, Curitiba's earnings or  domestic product  grew by some 75% more than the entire State of Paraná and 48% more than Brazil as a whole. In 1994, tourism generated 4% of the city's net income – around US$ 280 million.

Curitiba has  municipal  health, education and day care networks, as well as neighbourhood libraries shared by schools and citizens. ‘Citizenship Streets’ have been developed, where buildings provide essential public services, sports and cultural facilities near to  mass transportation  terminals (in particular Curitiba’s remarkable bus system - see below).

In terms of education and employment, at the city’s Open University residents can take courses in subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee. Policies for job creation and income generation also became part of the city's strategic planning in the 1990s.

Self-help – building a new kind of city

Since 1990, the  Municipal Housing Fund  has been providing financial support towards housing for lower income populations. As people from the countryside were pouring into Curitiba, the city's public housing program bought one of the few remaining large plots of land, "Novo Bairro" (New Neighbourhood), as a home for 50,000 families.

While landowners built the houses themselves, each received an hour's consultation with an architect to help them develop their plan (as well as a pair of trees). Current policy is that, as any favela area is cleared, residents move into planned communities and receive training in construction and a small mortgage. In this way they can not only buy the land and materials for the house which they build themselves, but also benefit from improved employment prospects due to their new skills. Unemployed and  informal  workers from  shanty towns  are transformed into legitimate home owners in purpose built communities with greatly enhanced prospects of formal sector employment.

Brain box...

Curitiba’s transport system.

Curitiba has a carefully planned transportation system, which includes lanes on major streets devoted to a  bus rapid transit system . The buses are long, split into three sections (bi-articulated), and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete with disabled access. There is only one price no matter how far you travel and you pay at the bus stop.

The system, used by 85% of Curitiba's population, is the source of inspiration for:

TransMilenio in Bogotá, Colombia

Metrovia in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Transmetro in Guatemala City, Guatemala

The Orange Line in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

It is also the inspiration for future transportation systems in Panama City, Cebu City in Philippines, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and, most recently, Lagos in Nigeria.

Jaime Lerner – Curitiba’s architect

By the 1960s, Curitiba's population had ballooned to 430,000. Architect Jaime Lerner, who later became mayor, led a team that suggested the following ideas:

Strict controls on  urban sprawl

Reduction of traffic in the downtown area

Preservation of Curitiba's Historic Sector

A convenient and affordable public transit system

He achieved these through  pedestrianisation  of much of the Central Business District of the city.

This plan, known as the Curitiba Master Plan, was adopted in 1968. Lerner closed main roads to vehicles if they had very high pedestrian traffic. The plan had a new road design to minimise traffic - the  Trinary Road System. This system uses two one-way streets moving in opposite directions which lie on either side of a two-lane road where the express buses have their exclusive lane.

Curitiba’s Rapid Transit System

Five of these trinary roads form a star that converges on the city centre. The bus rapid transport system carries more than 2 million passengers per day. There are more car owners per capita in Curitiba than anywhere else in Brazil and the population has doubled since 1974, yet auto traffic has declined by 30%, and atmospheric pollution is the lowest in Brazil.

The city has also paid careful attention to preserving and caring for its green areas and is referred to as the  ecological  capital of Brazil, with a network of 28 parks and wooded areas. In 1970, there was less than 1 square meter of green space per person; now there are 52 square meters for each person.

Residents planted 1.5 million trees along city streets and builders get tax breaks if their projects include green space. Flood waters diverted into new lakes in parks solved the problem of dangerous flooding while also protecting valley floors and riverbanks, acting as a barrier to illegal occupation and providing attractive, recreational value to the thousands of people who use city parks. Grass cutting in the parks has changed to sheep grazing which further utilises a valuable resource in a sustainable way.

A rubbish idea!

The ‘ green exchange " employment program focuses on social inclusion, benefiting both those in need and the environment. Low-income families living in  shanty towns  which cannot be reached by bin lorries bring their trash bags to neighbourhood centres where they exchange them for bus tickets and food. This means less city litter and less disease, less garbage dumped in sensitive areas such as rivers and a better life for the undernourished poor.

Under the ‘ rubbish that's not rubbish ’ program (‘O Lixo que Não é Lixo’), 70% of the city's waste is recycled by its residents. Once a week, a truck collects paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and glass that has been sorted in the city's homes. The city's paper recycling alone saves the equivalent of 1,200 trees a day. As well as the enormous environmental benefits, money raised from selling materials goes into social programs, and the city employs the homeless and recovering alcoholics in its garbage separation plant.

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Curitiba- case study

• Sustainability
• Created by: Jenny Jones
• Created on: 07-02-14 22:30
• a city in Brazil with the aims to improve the environment, reduce pollution and waste and improve the quality of life of residents
• a good bus system used by more than 1.4million passengers per day
• its an 'express' bus system- there are special pre-boarding stations that reduce boarding times and bus only lanes speeding up journey's
• same cheap fair is for all journey's, benefiting poorer residents
• over 200km of bike paths in the city
• green space increased from 0.5m squared per person to 52m
• has over 1000 parks and natural areas
• residents have planted 1.5 million trees along the city streets
• builders are given tax breaks if their projects include green spaces
• 70% of curitiba's rubbish is recycled
• residents in poorer areas where the streets are too narrow for a weekly rubbish collection are given food and bus tickets for bringing their recycling into local collection centres
• has a population of 1.8 million
• VERY SUCCESSFUL!
• reduction in car use means less pollution- environment won't be damaged so much for people in the future
• open spaces and conserving the natural environment means people in the future will still be able to use this open space
• high level of recycling means fewer resources are used and less waste has to go to landfill.
• 99% of people said they were happy with their town

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