1. Pollution Prevention
through
Smart Growth

2. Presentation Layout Problems One Solutions Causes of sprawl
Indicators of Sprawl
Pollution created by sprawl
One Solutions
Smart Growth
redevelop brownfields
Urban infill
Case study
Curitiba, Brazil
This presentation will offer you information that indicates how Sprawl is currently fostered by regulation and economic subsidies. Statistics showing the trend of how US cities have been ‘sprawling’ and how this type of urban growth promotes the generation of different types of pollution will be presented and, after describing the ‘sprawl’ scenario, a possible solution to prevent urban sprawl “smart growth’ will be presented. Lastly, a specific case study, the urban planning of Curitiba, will be shown to exemplify the positive results achieved through adequate urban and social planning.

3. Some definitions Sustainability
Addresses and accounts for the impact our actions have, trying to leave the smallest possible footprint
If negative impact occurs or is inevitable, take actions to abate impact.
Sustainable development is a concept that accounts for different impacts that human activities, such as dwelling, transport and manufacturing have on the environment.
The concept embraces the notion resources on earth are finite and that that the impact of these activities have direct repercussions on the amount and quality of short and long term resources availability.
In order to diminish the negative impact that human activities may have on the environment, people embracing the idea of “sustainable development’ attempt to reduce this impact through the stipulation of policies and careful planning.
These plans and regulations aim to meet the increasing needs of a growing population, while producing the smallest negative impact possible in the process.
In those instances where a significant or long term impact is expected, action plan would include specific steps to help ameliorate these impacts.

4. Some definitions Sprawl Brownfield Low density urban growth
Car Dependant
Brownfield
Abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination
Sprawl is a relatively recent coined term, used to describe the common way by which towns and cities grow outwards at the expense of ‘green’ lands, including farm-rural areas, wetlands and stream fringes.
As we will see, the consumption of green lands has been constantly increasing.
Sprawl is an unplanned and unmanaged type of urban development, through which cities and towns appear to be ‘disposable’. Urban areas that once flourished are ‘left behind’ as ‘new’ green areas receive the economic attention of developers. These now ‘old’ areas are soon left without resources and their infrastructure, physical and social rapidly crumbles. Sprawl in not sustainable.
Brownfields are (EPA) Abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. There are many brownfields across the US and the world and as such are wasted space. Many of these places have remained unused due to the lack of regulatory incentives to reactivate them.

5. Causes of Sprawl Political Economical Social Regulatory Prop. 13
Services and utilities are subsidized in suburbs
Social
Paradigm that ex-urban is good
Regulatory
Easier and cheaper permits
Regulations such as Prop 13 and governmental finance structures
Prop 13, 1978 CA law with good intention but lacking holistic perspective of its effects. Under this law, jurisdictions must relinquish property tax revenues to the state for reallocation. Consequently, cities pursue sales tax revenues as an alternate funding source, shifting the preference for land use development from residential to commercial.
For ex: Under Proposition 13 there is little fiscal incentive for many communities to develop affordable housing and when such housing is built, developers must usually pay heavy development fees. Meanwhile, since communities must raise revenues to provide mandated services, large auto dealers and retailers, both big sales-tax producers, receive city subsidies to locate in the communities. A close to home example is seen here in the SB-Goleta area. While the area lacks adequate housing to support its population, mega projects such as COSTCO and the Bacara Hotel have flourished.
Federal subsidies for new development beyond the existing urban fringe include an array of infrastructure programs, notably transportation. The federal transportation program long has focused its spending on new highways and states have mirrored that priority instead of directing resources to repair and preservation of existing capacity or transit systems. Since 1991 when the National Highway System was completed, focus has shifted to maintenance and transit.
Urban growth tends to be directed outwards. Though historically the reasons for this practice are varied, in the recent past this practice is fostered by subsidies in the form of tax breaks to build in the outskirts (cheaper, less regulated, ‘spread’ competition) .
Another type of subsidy comes from using tax monies to finance construction of roads and highways to connect the ongoing urban spread. These monies are also used to pay for the extension of utility and services (i.e. expensive sewer system, water supply, police) towards the outskirts that are rarely covered by the developers
Further, many state and local governments actually encourage the development of green lands (farmlands wetlands parks), claiming that this is necessary for the growth of the local economy. However, the Sierra Club states that in many cases, leaving a field undeveloped or a wetland unfilled is better for an area's economy than developing it and that the bargain rarely nets the economic benefits that its boosters promise.

6. Indicators of Sprawl Density of urban population decrease
Increase of farmland into urban area
Increase in the number of miles driven
increase in the number of cars to population is disproportional
Portland Oregon is representative of cities across the nation that have experienced the impact of sprawl
Between 1970 to 1990, Portland’s urban population densities declined by 23 %.
During the same period of time, more than 30,000 square miles of rural areas were urbanized. This is approximately equal to 1/3 of Oregon’s total area. Another example,
In the Puget Sound (WA) region between 1970 and 1990, for instance, population increased by 36 percent. During the same period, the amount of developed land increased by 87 percent (Pivo and Lidman, 1990).
Between 1969 and 1989, population in the US increased by 22.5%, while the number of miles driven almost doubled.
More recent statistics are even more staggering, for instance
During the 1980s, In Oregon the number of miles traveled per vehicles increased 8 times faster than population
King County, Washington, total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increased 64 percent in ten years (86-96), while population has increased only 18 percent (1996 King County Annual Growth Report).

7. Sprawl contributes to water pollution
Increases in
Impervious areas  Storm-water runoff
Fostering
erosion
flood risk
contaminant load to receiving water
groundwater table decline
Urban areas are characterized by large amount of impervious areas, such as paving over the land with roads, parking lots, rooftops. This characteristic has a dual, interrelated effect on the hydrologic cycle: It reduces groundwater rate recharge and promotes an increase in the frequency and volume of runoff. This results in a decline of the underground water table, higher flood risk and erosion rates of stream-banks, as well as higher loads of pollutants reaching the receiving waters.
Riverbanks, wetlands and floodplains are critical components of a river ecosystem, which provide wildlife habitat, function as sediment and toxin filters and act like sponges or buffers of floodwaters.
According to the Center for Watershed Protection, when 10% of a watershed is sealed under urban-impervious cover, rivers and streams that receive its runoff will are degraded. When the proportion of impervious cover reaches 25-40%, the rivers and streams of the watershed, often can no longer support fish and wildlife and are usually not safe for human uses.

8. Sprawl contributes to air pollution
As mentioned earlier, urban sprawl not only fosters intense use of motor vehicles, driving is a key aspect of its design (or lack of it), manifested in the continual extension of roads and freeways across the country.
For instance, a recently built freeway in the Los Angeles area had a cost of $200M per km and although only 18% of the population believed that this strategy would solve the traffic congestion problem, the city is planning to build another stretch of Freeway through Pasadena

9. Sprawl contribution to air pollution
Sprawl promotes extensive use of car
Car traffic is a major source of air pollution CO, CO2, NOx O3
Motor vehicles are responsible for high emission of CO, CO2, Nitrous oxides, and as all internal combustion engines for the formation of ozone in the lower atmosphere
Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality states that motor vehicles are the largest source of air pollution in Oregon.
Their transportation section is examining alternatives to motor vehicle transit, such as walking, riding the bus, bicycling or car pooling which will aid in the reduction of air pollutants.
As citizens we often demand stricter enforcement of air quality standards from our federal and local agencies especially in regards to large industry pollution. Perhaps, we should use this same criteria about our own habits of pollution. We all need to do our part to have quality air to breathe. Air quality is one of the most actively monitored environmental subjects and considering it's importance it should be.

10. One Option: ‘Smart Growth’
Urban Design to support
High population densities
Redevelop idle lands
Brownfields
Develop idle lands within urban setting
Infill
Smart Growth is a relatively recent coined term. The concept described by this idea is the opposite of sprawl. ‘Smart Growth’ development aims to develop city infrastructures’ designed to hold and service higher population densities. Given that regulation is the legislative way to prevent ‘sprawl’, the concept of Smart Growth has become highly politicized. In fact, SG was designated as a critical issue in the 2000 Democrat campaign.
SG urban design aims to provide the necessary infrastructure to serve the city’s inhabitants by incorporating strategies that make the urban setting appealing and affordable.
Urban centers are designed to hold high population densities and thus, recycle or develop idle lands such as Brownfields as well as lots that for one reason or another have not been developed.

11. Smart Growth Depends on Regulatory backbone that prevents sprawl
Mix-use zoning of lands
The development of alternative transport infrastructure
Inclusion of recreational facilities within urban areas
SG development:
is based on the implementation of regulatory boundaries on urban/suburban growth as tools to prevent ‘sprawl’
It encourages mix-use zoning, so that the inhabitants need to rely less on driving to satisfy their daily needs (work, shopping, school, recreation)
Encourage compact growth (high density) so that green space is left alone (and less impervious area is created)
Incorporates recreational space (parks, greenbelts, preserve) w/in urban/suburban areas to discourage driving out for leisure activities
It encourages multi-modal transportation centers/systems to decrease auto-dependencies and thus, urban design is done to accommodate the efficient performance of public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian walks

12. Urban Revitalization Urban revitalization
Brings ‘new’ life to urban center
Redevelop idle areas
Infill and Brownfields
Urban revitalization
focuses on city centers that are blighted and or under used.
Invests in bringing new business and new life to a city or its segments, encouraging business and developers to see inner cities as attractive business opportunities
Recent State and Federal (EPA) programs exist to help cleanup Brownfields in order to re-incorporate them into the urban redevelopment process of different cities in the US
In 1997 Clinton signed a Tax Payer relief Act (HR 2014/PL ) that includes a new tax incentive to encourage cleanup and redevelopment of Brownfields in urban and rural areas.
This tax incentive will help bring thousands of abandoned and under used industrial sites back into productive use, helping to revitalize neighborhoods and job creation.

13. CURITIBA Case Study BRASIL
Brazil shows large contrasts of planned and unplanned urban forms, that are apparent when contrasting the layouts and services of cities like Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro, with Brasilia or Curitiba.
Curitiba, capital of the State of Paraná, is the core city of 25 municipalities that make up the Curitiba Metropolitan Area. Its history dates back to the 17th century and since 1854, Curitiba is the state capital. In the early 1990s Curitiba’s average per capita income of $2,500. though, around 10% of its population live under poverty conditions. Many of its inhabitants are small farmers, who have been put out of work by the mechanization of agriculture in the past 30 years.
Curitiba started early (1960’s) its far-sighted vision of a manageable and integrated urban design, aimed at reducing dependency of cars and to increase accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.

14. Mid 1960s a group of young architects thinking about the environment and about human needs approached Curibita's mayor, pointed to the rapid growth of the city and made a case for better planning. A plan was developed and its implementation began in the early 70s by J. Lerner who was appointed mayor in Lerner had to think small, cheap and participatory
The Master Plan established the guiding principle that mobility and land use can not be disassociated with each other if the city's future design is to succeed. Curitiba's officials created a zoning and land-use policy that requires mixed- use high-density development along the north-south structural arteries in order to create the necessary population to support profitable public transport use. Thus, residential development focuses along the arteries, with essential services such as water, sewage, light, telephones, and public transportation provided. Further residential development occurs in four designated zones, in which all development must occur within close proximity of bus routes. An industrial park (called the "Industrial City") was built in 1973 in the western part of the city and plays an important part in the local economy.

15. A bit of Curitiba’s History
1964, group of Architects point out to the mayor the pressure that rapid growth is having
1971 Jaime Lerner is appointed Mayor and starts to take the plan into action
Flood problem
Parks clean
Pedestrian downtown
Efficient Public Transport
Lerner
He solved the city's flood problems by diverting water from lowlands into lakes in the new parks.
He hired teenagers to keep the parks clean.
turned the downtown shopping district into a pedestrian zone Initially he met resistance from shopkeepers, so he suggested a thirty-day trial. The zone became was so popular that shopkeepers on the other streets asked to be included.
Now one pedestrian street, the Rua das Flores, is lined with gardens tended by street children.

16. A Bit of Curitiba’s History
Today
Trash Recycling –organic / inorganic
Recycled materials are sold to local industries
2 / 3 of the trash is recycled
Curitiba recycles two-thirds of it garbage - one of the highest rates of any city, north or south
Its citizens separate their trash into just two categories, organic and inorganic,
The trash goes to a plant (itself built of recycled materials) that employs people to separate bottles from cans from plastic. The workers are handicapped people, recent immigrants, alcoholics.
Recovered materials are sold to local industries.
The recycling programme costs no more than the old landfill, but the city is cleaner, there are more jobs, farmers are supported and the poor get food and transportation..
Poor families in squatter settlements that are unreachable by trucks bring their trash bags to neighborhoods centers, where they can exchange them for bus tickets or for eggs, milk, oranges and potatoes, all bought from outlying farms.

17. Curitiba transport @ a glance
Between1950 and 1990 population increase 7 fold
1964 ‘Master plan’ for urban design is presented
1974 institute ‘Urbanization of Curitiba’ is established
1980 integrated transportation network is created: single fare
1991 ‘Speedy Bus’ and ‘Boarding tubes’ are created
1992 ‘Bi-articulated buses’ start operating
At the time this type urban design was going against the current, since most Brazilian cities as well as others around the world were emulating the trend of urban planning based on increasing car dependence. It was a time when Disney had pronounced that ‘the symbol of American freedom is the highway’, and as today we’ve always listened carefully what Mickey Mouse had to say.
The original master plan for Curitiba was the result of a public competition held in The plan, drawn up by Sao Paolo architect Jorge Wilhelm, proposed that the future extension of the city be channeled along densely developed transport-based axes.
In the last thirty years Curitiba has tripled in size from 500,000 to 1,6 million (with about the same number again in the surrounding metropolitan area). Services and commercial activities account for 80% of the local employment and much of the recent growth has been fuelled by migration both from the surrounding agricultural hinterland and from other parts of Brazil.

18. D’ Bus Service
By 1982 the Curitiba system of structural arteries was expanded in three east-west directions to be a total of five artery roads (see The new arteries, which also traverse the city through the CBD, were established on previously existing streets following demographic growth trends.
The final artery was not originally predicted by the Master Plan; instead planners introduced it as a response to the natural growth of the city in that area of the city. A ring road around the CBD was developed to allow travel between city sections without passing through the downtown area.

19. D’ Bus Service Efficient and Reliable
Arteries designed for bus preference
65% of the municipalities are covered
Five ‘types’ of buses
Savings
Less time commuting
Curitiba uses 30 % less fossil fuels than comparable city
little traffic congestion
The bus system incorporates the advantages of underground networks, to make the bus routs faster
Passengers wait for busses on raised tube platforms and pay their fee as they enter the tube. This results in less delays.
Busses travel on special express lanes that run parallel to the city’s main roads. Traffic signaling is computerized to favor flow of buses
The transport system is built around a network of separate bus routes linked by a number of feeder lines
This is further supported by a network of EXPRESS buses that stop only 3 km at special terminals. Buses and terminals are designed such that trans board from bus to bus is accessible, even for handicaps
The system can carry the same number of passengers and at similar speeds as a subway
This bi-articulated mass transport system, that uses existing road space costs only $1.3M per km, about 80 times less than a subway. The cost of the speedy bus network is about $0.2M which is about 500 times less
Approximately 75% of the population relies on this transport system, of which 28% used to previously rely on cars as their transpiration means

20. Other cities around the world have chosen to plan their growth patterns and not have their infrastructure be car dependant.
Many European cities, such as Zurich, Copenhagen and Stockholm have implemented strategies to reduce their automobile traffic
In Asia for example Singapore has created a wealthy city-state that is based on an electric rail system and well designed centers, going against the advise of the US dominated WB transport establishment, whom for the last 50 years have considered rail as an inferior mode of transportation.
Singapore has 1/6 of LA’s car use and 8 times more public transportation. It’s ~4 times as wealthy as Bangkok but relies ~40 % less on cars as a mean of transportation
Compared to Bangkok, where traffic speed is 13 km/h and bus speed is 9 km/h, In Singapore, traffic speed averages 32 km/h and the rail system 40 km/h.
The costs of the system are also significantly less.
LA with all its freeways and miniscule transit services, spends 12% of its wealth on transport, while most European cities with vast transit systems spend ~8%.
LA’s Major Richard Riordan has began to realize this after spending some $ 7 Billion in a failed subway system. Last year he turned his eyes to Curitiba to evaluate this “third world” transport system. Currently LA is seriously considering to import Curitiba’s design.

21. references http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report00/intro.asp