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Orienting Urban Planning to Sustainability in Curitiba, Brazil
STRATEGYAccelerate the transition to sustainable communities and societies
CHALLENGE
To guarantee a good quality of life for Curitiba's citizens over the long term, ensuring social inclusion, accessibility, public amenities, urban transparency and environmental sustainability for the city and metropolitan area
ACTION
Undertake a series of integrated urban planning actions based on valuing the individual that have resulted in a model ecological, people-centered city
PROFILE
Municipality of Curitiba, Brazil
Population: 1.6 million
Land Area: 432 km2
Municipal Budget: US$600 million
CASE
Curitiba is the capital of the State of Paraná, a mainly agricultural area in southern Brazil. In the 1970s and 1980s, physical, economic and demographic growth was rapid and the city became an important industrial and commercial center. Curitiba's population has doubled to 1.6 million over the past 30 years. Despite the major challenges that came with rapid growth, significant improvements have been made to quality of life in the city.
Curitiba is more than a city with a number of outstanding projects. The key to its success is the underlying, cohesive strategy-with a focus on improving life for residents and on integrated planning-that underpins all of its projects. Specific goals are social inclusion, accessibility, public amenities, urban transparency, efficiency and environmental sustainability for the city and metropolitan area.
The strategic vision that informs all aspects of Curitiba is articulated by its visionary former mayor, Jaime Lerner, who led the city's transformation, "There is no endeavour more noble than the attempt to achieve a collective dream. When a city accepts as its mandate its quality of life; when it respects the people who live in it; when it respects the environment; when it prepares for future generations, the people share responsibility for that mandate, and this shared cause is the only way to achieve that collective dream."
Strong political leadership and continuity has been essential to long-term implementation of the city's plan. Lerner, now governor of Paraná, was involved in developing the city's 1965 Master Plan. In the same year, Lerner and his colleagues established the Urban Planning Institute of Curitiba (IPPUC) as an independent agency to supervise and implement planning.
A clear strategy and vision of the future in Curitiba and creation of an agency to make sure it was implemented has meant that smaller decisions made over the course of years and in many individual programs have added up to a city that's a model of ecological, people-centered urbanism.
Although Curitiba is known internationally as a sustainable, ecological city, it calls itself "the city of all of us." In almost any area of Curitiba's urban planning over the years, it is possible to see how consideration has been given to people in the big picture-and also to see the associated, system-wide sustainability benefits of integrated planning.
This is what's most unique about the city's strategy: it maximizes the efficiency and productivity of transportation, land-use planning and housing development by integrating them so they support one another to improve residents' quality of life in the city.
RESULTS
Curitiba has high rates of recycling, large amounts of green space, a model transit system and social programs reaching all members of the community. Per capita income is 66% higher than the Brazilian average. The city's 30-year economic growth rate is 7%, significantly higher than the national average of 4%. Future expectations relate to Curitiba's metropolitan area, where the city's strategy is being applied to improve the lives of people in the surrounding region.
The following individual examples all reflect the city's people-first strategy, and the benefits of integrated urban planning and system-wide sustainability.
Transportation and Land Use
Integration of traffic management, transportation and land-use planning in the 1970s allowed the city to minimize downtown traffic, provide more leisure areas and pedestrian zones in the city center, and encourage the use of public transport and cycling in order to achieve an environmentally healthy city.
Today there's a model transit service used by more than 2 million people a day. While there are more car owners per capita than anywhere in Brazil, and the population has doubled since 1974, auto traffic has declined by 30%, and atmospheric pollution is the lowest in Brazil. In addition, an inexpensive "social fare" on public transit promotes equality. The city has 200 kilometers of bike paths.
Downtown areas were transformed into pedestrian streets, including a 24-hour mall with shops, restaurants and cafes and a street of flowers with gardens tended by street kids. This vibrant pedestrian zone encourages tourism, which generated US$280 million in 1994, 4% of the city's net income.
Green Space
Curitiba is referred to as the ecological capital of Brazil, with a network of 28 parks and wooded areas representing one-fifth of the city. Builders get tax breaks if their projects include green space. Waters diverted into new lakes in parks solved dangerous flooding problems, while also protecting valley floors and riverbanks, acting as a barrier to illegal occupation, and providing aesthetic and recreational value to the thousands of people who use city parks. The city has 52 square meters of green space per person, up from 1 square meter in 1970.
Waste Management
The "green exchange" employment program focuses on social inclusion, benefiting both those in need and the environment. Low-income families living in shantytowns unreachable by truck bring their trash bags to neighborhood centers, where they exchange them for bus tickets and food. There's also a program for children where they can exchange recyclable garbage for school supplies, chocolate, toys and tickets for shows.
Seventy percent of the city's trash is recycled, and the money raised from selling materials goes into social programs.
Education and Capacity Building
Open University, created by the city, lets residents take courses in many subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee.
The "capacity building job line" includes business incubators designed to help small companies get established and prosper and the Crafts Lycée that trains people for professions such as marketing and finance.
LESSONS LEARNED
Curitiba's officials found that the application of a city-strategy with strong, coherent governance, design values and a focus on integrated systems can be used successfully to align the actions of planning departments to meet strategic objectives.
The integration of different elements of urban development avoided problems associated with piecemeal development such as pollution, traffic congestion and nonsustainable fuel consumption rates.
Creative, cheap solutions that fit the city provided better solutions to Curitiba's urban problems than more expensive approaches.
KEY REPLICATION FACTORS
Key factors for success include:
- Articulation of strong, local core values in a city plan.
- Creation of an independent municipal authority such as IPPUC to ensure planning continuity and success regardless of political, economic and social challenges.
- Integrated planning processes structured to assure that planners in all areas know the strategy and are working with a shared vision and developing their plans together.
Luiz Masaru Hayakawa, President
IPPUC
Fax: +55-41/252-6679
Email: ippuc@ippuc.curitiba.pr.gov.br
IPPUC website: www.ippuc.org.br
Curitiba website: www.curitiba.pr.gov.br
Barcelona, Spain
In 1994, the City of Barcelona, Spain, signed the Heidelberg 'Declaration for Climate Protection' and set a goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% of 1987 levels. A key aspect of the city's plan is the exploitation of solar energy. In 1999, the city passed a municipal solar ordinance calling for the installation of solar panels on new developments. In addition, the largest photovoltaic plant in the world is planned for operation in 2004.
Toronto, Canada
Moving the Economy, a five-year-old partnership between the City of Toronto and Transportation Options, has laid a strong foundation to support the growth of sustainable transportation. It has launched two pilot projects to test the viability of new mobility strategies locally, nationally and internationally. The projects have led to an extensive communications network that links businesses and governments with information about new mobility, experts and on-the-ground examples of where new mobility is making money. Moving the Economy's New Mobility Sectoral Study, completed in 2002, has identified the directions government and businesses should take as new mobility develops over the next 20 years. The study has explored how Toronto and other cities can benefit from this trend.
Portland, USA
By integrating land-use and transportation policies, the City of Portland, USA, is developing a more compact, energy-efficient urban form that reduces automobile dependency. An urban growth boundary guides development, and Portland's regional 2040 Growth Concept protects natural areas and farmland while improving infrastructure. The concept integrates transportation strategies and land-use policies that strongly support strategic growth management while allowing each regional community to develop its business center and neighborhoods with their own characteristics. Public transit, foot traffic, bicycle use, roadways and freight movement are addressed with a strong emphasis on locating jobs and housing near existing multi-modal transportation infrastructure. As a result, during the 1990s bicycle commuting almost tripled, transit ridership increased by 65% and per capita gasoline consumption fell by 9%.
