gcse geography: sustainable city: case study: curitiba

Curitiba is a city in southern brazil.

Curitiba population- 1.8 million people 

curitiba's aims of being a sustainable city:

* improve the environment

* reduce pollution and waste

* improve the quality of life of residents

Curitiba has a budget of $600 miilion to spend every year

Reducing car use

* integrated transport system- a good bus system which is used by 1.4 million passengers per day.

an 'express' bus system which has a special pre-pay boarding stations that reduce boarding times , bus priority lanes  on the road speed up journeys.

same cheap fare paid for all journeys ,benefits poor residents who tend to live in the outskirts of the city.

* 200km bike paths in the city

* bus system and bike paths are popular whichis 25% lower than the national average car use.

* green space increased from 0.5m2 per person in 1970 to 52m2 per person in 1990.

* 1000 parks and natural areas were built, for cities prone to flooding so land's useful and no serious damage can be done

* residents planted 1.5 million trees along city streets

* builders in curitiba are given tax breaks if they buildings include green space.

* 70% of rubbish is recycled. paper recycling saves 1200 trees per day

* residents in poor areas where the streets are to narrow are given food and bus tickets if they bring thier recycling into local collection centres.

1) The reduction in car use means that theres less visual/noise/air pollution from cars and use of fossil fuels.

2) leaving green,open spaces and conserving the natural environment means people can use them in the future. And also the environment won't be damagesd.

3) high levels of recycling means that fewer resources are being used and less waste has to go to landfill. More resources will be available in the future.

4) curitiba has met the aim of keeping the residents happy by improving the quality of live because a recent survey showed that 99% of the people were happy with thier town.