Rio De Janeiro

Urbanization- RioRio de Janeiro, known for its beauty, is one of the most interesting cities in the world. Placed between miles of beaches and mountains, Rio has developed into a primate city for Brazil, second only to Sao Paulo. Founded in 1567, Rio has grown into one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. With a population of over 11 million, Rio is considered the cultural heart of Brazil. From the pre-Lentin carnival to their love for soccer and from the wealthy beaches of Copacabana, Leblon, and Ipanema to the extremely poor living in hillside favelas, Rio makes up a diverse population.Rio has seen many periods of development, but never as much as it has in the last half century. After World War II, Rio developed into a modern city, accepting the same problems that come with such a change (severe poverty, limited public services, traffic congestion, pollution). As more people move from the country to Rio, the problems of overcrowding increase. Though the city may change over time, Rio will always have its beautiful hills and beaches for which it is known.Sourceshttp://www.macalester.edu/courses/geog61/chad/titlepag.htm

Rio de Janeiro is a mega city of more than six million people. As a result of a high-density population and poor city planning, Rio de Janeiro faces many environmental challenges such as air pollution, water pollution and deforestation.Sourceshttp://www.cleanairnet.org/lac_en/1415/article-33878.htmlhttp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35308http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/americas/31iht-1brazil.15778028.htmlhttp://www.globalenvision.org/2009/06/25/rio-de-janeiro-deforestation-planhttp://articles.latimes.com/1987-02-26/news/mn-6037_1?pg=3

The air pollution in Rio is a serious issue that threatens the health of all of its inhabitants. The pollution is caused by the immense amount of motor vehicles clogging Rio’s thoroughfares. Many of these vehicles do not meet American emissions standards and it is estimated that nearly 10,000 new vehicles join Rio’s streets every month. Massive deforestation and airport traffic serve to exacerbate the already critical problem. In 1999, the State Foundation for Engineering and Environment began the Clean Air Initiative in Rio. Their goal was to decrease air pollution by halting deforestation and encouraging mass transportation as opposed to small automobiles. Ten years later, the progress is hardly noticeable.Sourceshttp://www.cleanairnet.org/lac_en/1415/article-33878.htmlhttp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35308http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/americas/31iht-1brazil.15778028.htmlhttp://www.globalenvision.org/2009/06/25/rio-de-janeiro-deforestation-planhttp://articles.latimes.com/1987-02-26/news/mn-6037_1?pg=3

Another critical issue facing the inhabitants of Rio is water pollution. Though the water supply will be plentiful at least until 2025, the quality of the water cannot be assured. Water pollution is caused by two major sources. Untreated runoff from the large population is the main source of water pollution. The city’s poor inhabitants live in the hillside and use water. Then it runs untreated into the city polluting the watershed and the harbor. This untreated and water and sewage covers many of Rio’s beautiful beaches and upscale resorts. Deforestation and Brazil’s burgeoning offshore drilling industry also contribute to this problem.Sourceshttp://www.cleanairnet.org/lac_en/1415/article-33878.htmlhttp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35308http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/americas/31iht-1brazil.15778028.htmlhttp://www.globalenvision.org/2009/06/25/rio-de-janeiro-deforestation-planhttp://articles.latimes.com/1987-02-26/news/mn-6037_1?pg=3

Deforestation of the Amazon is a tragedy of epic proportions. It has terrible effects on the environment such as the release of green house gases. The rate of Amazon deforestation increased 69 percent in the past 12 months. About 8,147 square kilometers, or 3,145 square miles, of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008, much of that in the area surrounding Rio. The Amazon region covers about 4.1 million square kilometers of Brazil, nearly 60 percent of the country. About 20 percent of that land has already been deforested. The solution? Government officials in Rio de Janeiro insist that building a nine-mile, cinder-block wall around their slums will help to prevent the Atlantic rain forest from further deforestation, and restrict the expansion of these shantytowns. Human rights groups believe that this barrier is a form of “social apartheid.” Government officials are now working on a more agreeable plan to protect the rainforest and clean up the notoriously freewheeling city. Environmental degradation is the secondary cause of water pollution. Many of the pollutants yielded by Brazil’s industries flow freely into Brazil’s waterways. Sourceshttp://www.cleanairnet.org/lac_en/1415/article-33878.htmlhttp://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35308http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/americas/31iht-1brazil.15778028.htmlhttp://www.globalenvision.org/2009/06/25/rio-de-janeiro-deforestation-planhttp://articles.latimes.com/1987-02-26/news/mn-6037_1?pg=3

Brazil’s first conservation law, issued in 1797, prohibited the burning or destruction of forests. The country’s first national parks were created in the late 1930s. From the mid-20th century, Brazilian and international environmental organizations have pressured the national government to curb damage to the Amazon rainforest, the Pantanal, and other ecosystems in Brazil. The government has become increasingly willing to address environmental issues, although widespread destruction has continued.Pollution has degraded Brazil’s rivers, threatening the water supplies of most of the population, and ecological disasters are common: in 2000 alone there were major oil spills in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay and in the Iguaçu River. The Brazilian government’s environmental agencies regularly fine manufacturers and mining companies for failing to provide adequate environmental safeguards, but the fines are often small and oversight lax.Sourceshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78101/Brazil/222807/Conservation-and-ecology

A victim of 500 years of coastal development, only about 7% of Brazil’s original Atlantic Forest remains today, in a highly fragmented landscape. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A unique partnership of the Brazilian federal government, local and international organizations announces the purchase of a 100-hectare (247-acre) parcel in Rio de Janeiro state, linking tiny “islands” of what remains of Brazil’s Atlantic Coastal Forest, one of the world’s most species-rich but most endangered tropical forests. Protection and restoration of the forest to establish this small but crucial corridor will help assure a future for endangered golden lion tamarin monkeys and more than 35 endangered bird species existing only in this region. Save the Golden Lion Tamarin www.SavetheLionTamarin.org is a U.S.A. 501(c) (3) public charity dedicated to raising funds to support the efforts of the Associação Mico-Leão Dourado (Golden Lion Tamarin Association).The restoration of the corridor will also help our planet’s future by “soaking up” between 10,000 and 30,000 tons of carbon over the next 30 years. “Forests soak up carbon as they grow, and forests in warm, wet places like the Atlantic Forest grow quickly. By supporting our partners’ work and purchasing about two hectares (roughly 200 yards by 100 yards or 183meters x 91 meters) of tropical forest, individual donors will become carbon neutral for the next 30 years (soaking up somewhere between 6 to 19 tons of carbon per year).”Sourceshttp://www.savingspecies.org/Images/PRESS_RELEASE_December2007_English.pdf

A plan to protect large expanses of the Amazon rainforest could reduce carbon emissions by 1.1 billion tons by 2050, according to a study presented in Bonn, Germany at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Assessing the carbon stored in forests protected under the Brazil's Amazon Region Areas Program (ARPA) -- a program created in 2003 that seeks to preserve some 40 million hectares of Amazon rainforest by 2012 -- researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts estimate that areas protected by the initiative hold some 4.6 billion tons of carbon. Forecasting the expected forest loss if the designated areas were not protected, the researchers calculate that the program will avoid some 1.1 billion tons of carbon emissions. By some estimates, including the British government's Stern Review which pegged the long-term cost of one ton of carbon dioxide emitted today at $85 ($312 per ton of carbon), the emissions reductions could be worth more than 100 billion dollars.Sourceshttp://news.mongabay.com/2008/0529-amazon.html

This tiny monkey is one of the most endangered of all animals in South America. The few that are left, about 150, are restricted to the only remaining coastal rainforest, southwest of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Forest destruction is the main reason for the tamarin's decline, but it is also in danger of being captured alive and sold as a pet - a strictly illegal practice which still goes on in secret. Some captive-bred golden lion tamarins have been put back into the wild in a protected area of forest.Sourceshttp://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental/endangered-animals-of-the-world/

Brazil has a number of laws on the books that theoretically should slow Amazon deforestation and encourage sustainable use of forest resources. The problem is, IBAMA, Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency, is woefully under funded -- in 2003, the entire budget for environmental law enforcement in Brazil was $9.5 million. $9.5 million to police Earth's 5th largest country (roughly the size of Australia, Spain, and Germany combined) having the world's biggest expanse of tropical wilderness. Between the lack of resources, rampant corruption, and questions as to whether IBAMA even has any legal authority to enforce the law, the agency only collects 6.5% of the fines it imposes. IBAMA estimates that 80% of all logging in the Amazon is illegal, but there's relatively little it can do about it. To effectively enforce existing environmental law, IBAMA is going to need more resources.http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_conservation.html

A spatial and temporal analysis, at a city wide scale, is given of the main type of informal housing (favelas) in Rio de Janeiro. Rapid change in the number and distribution of favelas and their inhabitants (favelados) over time is seen as the outcome of two opposing sets of factors. Demand-led housing factors, including population growth and variations in levels of poverty in the city, have constantly outstripped the supply side of the housing equation where inadequate housing policies and investment, together with restricted building land have been characteristic. Added to these factors are a set of more specific developments which shape the favela geography, including the timing and location of urban redevelopment, favela eradication and recognition, transport development and access by the favelados to employment sources. Evidence shows that the contemporary distribution of favelas in the city does not conform to spatial models of this urban form, and that any interpretation of the Rio favelas, including their growth, development and diversity, needs to be space and time specific.Sourceshttp://www.springerlink.com/content/k362933r2h20682u/

-FAVELAS: Rio de Janeiro, like most third world cities, is experiencing a dramatic increase in population. This increase has come mostly in the form of the rural poor migrating to the cities. Because of the high land values and the enormous demand for space, these poor are forced into squatter settlements known as favelas. These settlements usually occur in two areas of Rio: one, along the steep hillsides or, two, along the outer fringes of urban expansion. The most famous favelas are those build along the hillsides. The houses are usually made first from wattle-and-daub, a mixture of sand and clay, and eventually to the use of wood, brick and sheet metal. Today, there are over 500 favela communities existing within the city of Rio and comprise about a third of the total population. While the city of Rio is growing at 2.7% a year, the favelas are growing at a rate of 7.5% a year. This massive and uncontrolled urbanization has extended Rio¹s utilities and infrastructure passed their limit. The favelas are the ones that suffer. What makes the favelas so unique for Rio is their location on the steep hillsides. Here the extremely poor live on the hillside with the scenic views while the rich live along the bottom where conditions are less than favorable. Not only is the direct opposite of city development around the world, but it creates a dramatic contrast between the rich and the poor by putting the two directly next to one another. This is one of the advantages to living in this type of favela. The rich provide many of the jobs, in way of services, that help sustain the livelihood of the faveladors. Many of the rich rely on the cheap labor and service jobs that the faveladors supply, but this does not quell the criticism and negative image that they evoke.

THE 3 ZONES The three essential functions of early Portuguese settlements are access from the hinterland and the sea, military strongholds and religious centers. The center of the city, or Central Zone, was built on a hill, later named Morro de Castelo, for protection form invasion. As the city grew, this hill was later leveled and used as infill for expansion. The hills around Rio severely limited where and how much expansion could take place. Most are too steep to develop and severely limited the direction which development occurred. By infilling into the bay, Rio was able to keep expanding, though on a limited basis. Though urban expansion continued, the Portuguese government never attempted any type of planning control. Rio formed around several squares located near the waterfront and the center of the city along a hilltop. The important government and religious institutions were located here and streets would wind down the hill to the bay. Though this made for a picturesque setting, it later proved hampering to the modernization of Rio.Since the hills existed mainly to the south, most expansion was directed northward. The North Zone was much flatter and most development concentrated along the western side of the bay. Eventually the docks moved northward too and a separation occurred between the industrial sector to the north and the commercial sector to the south. This expansion of the docks came on the heals of the discovery of gold and diamonds in nearby Minas Gerais along with the increasing demand for the traditional exports of coffee, sugar, rubber and cotton. Rio became the major port for Brazilian exports and grew quite rapidly during this period. Much of the city began to modernize. This was due in part to the resettling of the Portuguese monarchy in Rio and the increasing European population that came with. Infrastructure changes began in sewerage, telephone/telegraph, electric street lighting, and the widening and paving of roads. These improvements did not end with the city, but continued into the hinterland and created improved connections to cities and goods from the interior.The addition of the street car followed north-south routes from the central district to the northern suburbs, creating "fingers" of development along these lines. The creation of the first tunnel allowed for more development to focus in on Rio from the outlying areas. With another phase of modernization, around the turn of the twentieth century, the South Zone began new prominence along the coast. Any wealthy establishments to the north were forced out by the increased expansion of industry and headed to the small fishing villages along the Atlantic coast By the 1970's, most of the Second Empire and Art Nouveau styles of architecture were destroyed. The street car system was removed, except for one route, which was replaced by busses. This caused a filling in effect between the fingers of development along the old street car routes and a spreading out of development. The South Zone became one of the most densely populated areas in the world. A narrow strip between the beaches and the hills saw way to apartments and condominiums of some of the wealthiest people in Brazil. The concentration of wealth and population around the core of Rio forced the poor out of the cities and into suburbios. Wealthy living in such a densely populated, high rise area and the poor living in the periphery, is just the opposite of the urbanization of most western cities. There is wealth on the extreme periphery of Rio, but this usually occurs in smaller, towns just outside the development of the city. Development continues along the prestigious beaches of the South Zone,. A subway was started in the mid 1970's, but never exceeded one line. There are plans to expand this line, but not for many years. It has never become much of a factor in reducing the massive auto congestion in the city.Sourceshttp://www.rio-de-janeiro.info/rio-de-janeiro-travel.htmhttp://www.macalester.edu/courses/geog61/chad/titlepag.htm

The municipality of Rio, the city proper, had a population of 6,093,472 in 2007. The vast metropolitan region, however, was home to a population of 11.7 million (2007). Although population growth had been rapid during most of the 20th century, it slowed significantly between 1980 and 1990; during this period, the metropolitan region posted the lowest annual population growth rate, only 0.7 percent, since modern census taking began. That growth has been uneven, with the municipality of Rio posting only a 0.4 percent annual gain, while outlying suburban municipalities have averaged about 1.5 percent annually. Rio’s ethnic makeup mirrors its history, which has included people of African, European, and Native American origin. Nearly two-thirds of the population is of African descent, although this group reflects the widespread racial mixing and intermarriage that have characterized Brazilian society. While racial tolerance and acceptance are often heralded as characteristics of Brazilian society, whites typically enjoy more privileged social and economic positions than people of African or native descent. Sourceshttp://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761554853/Rio_de_Janeiro_%28city%29.html#s4