Urban sustainability: advances and challenges in the Baixo Amazonas Integration Region, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyzes urban sustainability panorama of the Integration Region (RI) Baixo Amazonas for the years 2000 and 2010 and reports advances and challenges toward sustainability. RI is defined as a unit of analysis composed of 13 municipalities located in the northern half of the state of Pará, Brazil. The region was chosen because it brings together large mining projects along with intense agricultural activity, a situation that justifies the importance of measuring the level of municipal sustainability. To this end, the Urban Sustainability Index System (SISU) was applied, characterized by three thematic indicators, in order to obtain a three-dimensional panorama, namely: the Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM); the Political-Institutional Capacity Index (ICP); and, the Environmental Quality Index (IQA). It was found in the time sample made available by official agencies, that only the IDHM showed advances in all municipalities studied. As for the ICP, only Santarém and Monte Alegre showed no increases, while Juruti stood out for more increases in the improvement in fiscal autonomy and municipal public management. As for the IQA, four municipalities (Belterra, Juruti, Santarém and Terra Santa) expressed advances in the studied period, while the other municipalities had their indices reduced. In general, the study points out that the main challenges faced by these municipalities towards sustainability are related to low basic sanitation coverage, especially regarding the adequacy of facilities, increases in energy consumption due to domestic pressure, significant use of the vehicle fleet, and also reduction rates of vegetation cover, deforestation and forest degradation across IR.