Multiple views of sustainable urban mobility: The case of Brazil

The aim of this work is to identify key factors of a sustainable urban mobility concept in a particular context. A multiple criteria decision analysis method was developed to identify the main variables associated to the concept. Looking at the results obtained in 11 cities of the five Brazilian regions, we conclude that the method is able to capture the different views and approaches discussed in the formulation of the mobility concept. Therefore, it can be used as a starting point for the formulation of public policies and also in the development of tools designed for monitoring the mobility conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Participação comunitária em um programa de intervenção em área de proteção ambiental

Este artigo discute os conceitos de participação e empowerment em Promoção da Saúde e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, considerando as agendas de implementação local, Municípios/Cidades Saudáveis e Agenda 21, e a importância dos processos de avaliação nesse contexto, por meio da análise de uma intervenção em área de mananciais - o Programa Bairro Ecológico (PBE), desenvolvido em 51 bairros do município de São Bernardo do Campo, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. O estudo teve por objetivo avaliar os processos de participação e empowerment da comunidade, a partir das ações desencadeadas pelo PBE. Foram aplicados questionários e realizados grupos focais com moradores de bairros que sofreram a intervenção. Também foram realizadas entrevistas individuais com gestores do programa e do poder judiciário. Os resultados indicaram que a participação na implementação do PBE favoreceu o empowerment individual e grupal, presente nas duas comunidades estudadas. As comunidades tornaram-se mais organizadas. Há indícios de que os processos de tomada de decisões são centralizados. Apesar disso, as comunidades entendem que sua participação no programa lhes traz muitas coisas boas. Houve um processo participativo no desenvolvimento do programa, ainda que alguns relatos apontem para o caráter obrigatório da participação. Deve-se destacar o impacto do envolvimento e fortalecimento das lideranças na implementação e sustentabilidade do programa. No que diz respeito a esta última, verificou-se que a sensibilização ambiental tem sido fator determinante para a execução e manutenção das ações ao longo do tempo.

Size at birth and lipoprotein concentrations in adulthood: two prospective studies in Latin American cities

Background The relationship between birth weight and plasma lipoproteins is inconsistent. Aims To assess the association between birth weight and (1) body mass index (BMI) at birth and (2) lipoproteins in young adults, and also to explore the possible effect of current obesity as a possible effect modifier. Methods Two prospective studies based on representative samples of subjects born in the 1970s were carried out in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil (n = 2063) and Limache, Chile (n = 999). The surveys were carried out between 2001 and 2004. Results Mean birth weights were 3267 g and 3177 g and mean adult BMIs were 24.3 kg/m(2) and 25.8 kg/m(2) in the Brazilian and Chilean samples, respectively. Total adult cholesterol was 4.57 mmol/l in Chileans, 0.26 mmol/l higher than in Brazilians (p < 0.001). The main finding was an interaction between adult obesity (BMI 30 or over) and birth weight and also BMI at birth and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol. A birth-weight increment of 1 kg was associated with a decrease in total cholesterol (-0.374 mmol/l, 95% CI -0.567 to -0.181) and LDL (-0.304 mmol/l (-0.479 to -0.129) in obese participants only. These associations persisted after allowing for gestational age in a smaller sample. This finding was consistent in separate analyses in the Brazilian and Chilean samples. No associations were found in relation to high-density lipoprotein and triglyceride concentrations. Conclusion The results suggest that those who were of low birth weight and are obese are more likely to have high cholesterol and LDL concentrations. Thus preventing obesity may be especially rewarding in subjects with a low birth weight.

Biofuels and Sustainable Energy Development in Brazil

Through the assessment of three decades of the Alcohol Program in Brazil, the paper shows that adequate public policies regarding biomass production can deliver direct benefits like energy security improvement, foreign exchange savings, and local employment generation, reduced urban air pollution and avoided CO(2) emissions. Moreover, the paper shows that Brazilian produced ethanol has faced economies of scale, technical progress and productivity gains and is no longer dependent on subsidies to be competitive. The paper also examines the potential in Brazil for fostering other biofuels, namely biodiesel obtained from vegetable oils, as well as their implications on sustainable energy development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forest-related partnerships in Brazilian Amazonia: There is more to sustainable forest management than reduced impact logging

There is more to sustainable forest management than reduced impact logging. Partnerships between multiple actors are needed in order to create the institutional context for good forest governance and sustainable forest management and stimulate the necessary local community involvement. The idea behind this is that the parties would be able to achieve more jointly than on their own by combining assets, knowledge, skills and political power of actors at different levels of scale. This article aims to demonstrate by example the nature and variety of forest-related partnerships in Brazilian Amazonia. Based on the lessons learned from these cases and the authors` experience, the principal characteristics of successful partnerships are described, with a focus on political and socioeconomic aspects. These characteristics include fairly negotiated partnership objectives, the active involvement of the public sector as well as impartial brokers, equitable and cost-effective institutional arrangements, sufficient and equitably shared benefits for all the parties involved, addressing socioeconomic drawbacks, and taking measures to maintain sustainable exploitation levels. The authors argue that, in addition to product-oriented partnerships which focus on sustainable forest management, there is also a need for politically oriented partnerships based on civil society coalitions. The watchdog function of these politically oriented partnerships, their awareness-raising campaigns regarding detrimental policies and practices, and advocacy for good forest governance are essential for the creation of the appropriate legal and political framework for sustainable forest management. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The central role of human resource management in the search for sustainable organizations

The aim of this article is to present the main contributions of human resource management to develop sustainable organizations. The relationship between human resources and organizational sustainability, which is based on economical, social and environmental performance, involves some important aspects concerning management such as innovation, cultural diversity and the environment. The integration of items from the triple bottom line approach leads to developing a model based on a strategic and central posture of human resource management. Based on this model, propositions and recommendations for future research on this theme are presented.

Toward sustainable soil and water resources use in China`s highly erodible semi-arid loess plateau

The water-wind crisscross region of the Loess Plateau in China is comprised of 17.8 million hectares of highly erodible soil under limited annual rainfall. This requires a sustainable water balance for the restoration of dryland ecosystems to reduce and manage soil erosion. In this region, alfalfa has been one of the main legumes grown to minimize soil erosion. However, alfalfa yields were significantly lower in years of reduced rainfall suggesting that high water use and deep rooting alfalfa make it an unsustainable crop due to the long-term decline in soil water storage and productivity. Our objectives in this Study were to evaluate the soil water balance of Loess Plateau soils during vegetative restoration and to evaluate practices that prevent soil desiccation and promote ecosystem restoration and sustainability. Field observations of soil moisture recovery and soil erosion were carried out for five years after alfalfa was replaced with different crops and with bare soil. Soil water content changes in cropland, rangeland, and bare soil were tracked over several years, using a water balance approach. Results indicate that growing forages significantly reduced runoff and sediment transport. A forage-food-crop rotation is a better choice than other cropping systems for achieving sustainable productivity and preventing soil erosion and desiccation. However, economic considerations have prevented its widespread adoption by local farmers. Alternatively, this study recommends consideration of grassland crops or forest ecosystems to provide a sustainable water balance in the Loess Plateau of China. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Letters and cities: reading the urban environment with the help of perception theories

When wandering around a city such as Sao Paulo, we are surrounded by letters, numbers and symbols. These elements form part of an environment full of signs in many shapes and sizes that compete for our attention. Our perception of these elements contributes towards our spatial guidance and sense of place. The idea of `reading` the city, or urban environment, was introduced by Kevin Lynch, for whom reading the urban structure follows on from recognizing or identifying its numerous visual elements, not necessarily verbal ones. Beginning with a brief bibliographic review of perception theories, this article combines concepts from environmental psychology with concerns brought up by the fields of information design and epigraphy studies, setting out the basis of a methodological proposal for the study of typography and lettering in the urban environment.

Systemic Model for Diagnosis of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises from Two Cities from the Countryside of the State of So Paulo in Brazil

This article presents a proposal of a systemic model composed for the micro and small companies (MSE) of the region of Ribeiro Preto and the agents which influenced their environment. The proposed model was based on Stafford Beer`s (Diagnosing the system for organizations. Chichester, Wiley, 1985) systemic methodologies VSM (Viable System Model) and on Werner Ulrich`s (1983) CSH (Critical Systems Heuristics). The VSM is a model for the diagnosis of the structure of an organization and of its flows of information through the application of the cybernetics concepts (Narvarte, In El Modelo del Sistema Viable-MSV: experiencias de su aplicacin en Chile. Proyecto Cerebro Colectivo del IAS, Santiago, 2001). On the other hand, CSH focus on the context of the social group applied to the systemic vision as a counterpoint to the organizational management view considered by the VSM. MSE of Ribeiro Preto and Sertozinho had been analyzed as organizations inserted in systems that relate and integrate with other systems concerning the public administration, entities of representation and promotion agencies. The research questions: which are the bonds of interaction among the subsystems in this process and who are the agents involved? The systemic approach not only diagnosed a social group, formed by MSE of Ribeiro Preto and Sertozinho, public authorities and support entities, but could also delineate answers that aimed the clarification of obscure questions generating financial assistance to the formularization of efficient actions for the development of this system.

GREEN MANAGEMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND SMALL BUSINESS IN BRAZIL: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING AND EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

This paper presents the results of a study on the analysis of training needs regarding environmental (green) management and climate change topics in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Brazil and its implications on education for sustainable development. It reports on an e-mail survey of Brazilian small enterprises, whose results indicate that they are indeed interested in environmental management and climate change topics in an education for sustainable development context. The study indicates that proposals for courses on environmental management and climate change should follow a systemic perspective and take sustainable development into account. By applying factor analysis, it was found that the topics of interest can be grouped into thematic modules, which can be useful in the design of training courses for the top management leaders of those companies.

A hypothesis for explaining single outbreaks (like the Black Death in European cities) of vector-borne infections

We propose a mechanism by which single outbreaks of vector-borne infections can happen even when the value of the basic reproduction number, R(o), of the infection is below one. With this hypothesis we have shown that dynamical models simulations demonstrate that the arrival of a relatively small (with respect to the host population) number of infected vectors can trigger a short-lived epidemic but with a huge number of cases. These episodes are characterized by a sudden outbreak in a previously virgin area that last from weeks to a few months, and then disappear without leaving vestiges. The hypothesis proposed in this paper to explain those single outbreaks of vector-borne infections, even when total basic reproduction number, Ro, is less than one (which explain the fact that those infections fail to establish themselves at endemic levels), is that the vector-to-host component of Ro is greater than one and that a sufficient amount of infected vectors are imported to the vulnerable area, triggering the outbreak. We tested the hypothesis by performing numerical simulations that reproduce the observed outbreaks of chikungunya in Italy in 2007 and the plague in Florence in 1348. The theory proposed provides an explanation for isolated outbreaks of vector-borne infections, ways to calculate the size of those outbreaks from the number of infected vectors arriving in the affected areas. Given the ever-increasing worldwide transportation network, providing a high degree of mobility from endemic to virgin areas, the proposed mechanism may have important implications for public health planning. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable vegetable crop supply problem

We consider an agricultural production problem, in which one must meet a known demand of crops while respecting ecologically-based production constraints. The problem is twofold: in order to meet the demand, one must determine the division of the available heterogeneous arable areas in plots and, for each plot, obtain an appropriate crop rotation schedule. Rotation plans must respect ecologically-based constraints such as the interdiction of certain crop successions, and the regular insertion of fallows and green manures. We propose a linear formulation for this problem, in which each variable is associated with a crop rotation schedule. The model may include a large number of variables and it is, therefore, solved by means of a column-generation approach. We also discuss some extensions to the model, in order to incorporate additional characteristics found in field conditions. A set of computational tests using instances based on real-world data confirms the efficacy of the proposed methodology. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On the efficiency of transportation systems in large cities

We report an analysis of the accessibility between different locations in big cities, which is illustrated with respect to London and Paris. The effects of the respective underground systems in facilitating more uniform access to diverse places are also quantified and investigated. It is shown that London and Paris have markedly different patterns of accessibility, as a consequence of the number of bridges and large parks of London, and that in both cases the respective underground systems imply in general, thought in distinct manners, an increase of accessibility. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2010