Human Health Impacts of Contaminants Found in Local Drinking Water Supply

Many contaminants are currently unregulated by the government and do not have a set limit, known as the Maximum Contaminant Level, which is dictated by cost and the best available treatment technology. The Maximum Contaminant Level Goal, on the other hand, is based solely upon health considerations and is non-enforceable. In addition to being naturally occurring, contaminants may enter drinking water supplies through industrial sources, agricultural practices, urban pollution, sprawl, and water treatment byproducts. Exposure to these contaminants is not limited to ingestion and can also occur through dermal absorption and inhalation in the shower. Health risks for the general public include skin damage, increased risk of cancer, circulatory problems, and multiple toxicities. At low levels, these contaminants generally are not harmful in our drinking water. However, children, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems are more vulnerable to the health risks associated with these contaminants. Vulnerable peoples should take additional precautions with drinking water. This research project was conducted in order to learn more about our local drinking water and to characterize our exposure to contaminants. We hope to increase public awareness of water quality issues by educating the local residents about their drinking water in order to promote public health and minimize exposure to some of the contaminants contained within public water supplies.

Money and Education: How Economic Distribution Corresponds to Academic Success

Urban sprawl is a significant issue in the United States, one effect of which is the departure of the wealth from cities. This study examined the distribution of wealth in Erie County, New York, focused around Buffalo. The question is then raised, why do those with the money leave the city, and to where do they go? While this study does not attempt to explain all of the reasons, it does examine two significant issues: quality of public school education, and proximity to main highways with easy access to the city. Using ArcGIS, I was able to place the public high schools and their relative ranking over a distribution of per capita income. The results of this analysis show that the wealthiest areas are located within the best school districts. Moreover, the areas where the wealth accumulates are directly connected by major highways.

Henrique Novaes: técnica, território e cidade em uma trajetória profissional: Brasil, primeira metade do século XX

The career of civil engineer Henrique de Novaes, a remarkable figure in the academic, technical and political fields, demonstrates its extensive and relevant work across Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. It covered from the design of water supply and sewage works, road and rail transport networks, works against drought in the Northeast, hydroelectric and harbor facilities to the urbanization planning and architectural projects, which displays a systematic and multiple production. City and territory conformed to his fields of verification, practical and above all, transformation. The search for understanding of the inclusion of a social actor in this process thus contributes to the specific analysis of the doings of Henrique de Novaes, who graduated at Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro in 1906. From a polymorphic activity in different scales, one tries to figure how, through academic education or professional practice, urban history in Brazil can be told or built. The introduction of technological innovations matched the purposes of planning and urban sprawl, as well as met the specifications of regulation and institutionalization of public infrastructure services at the time. The overall plans proposed by the engineer thought of the city as a whole, interconnected to the structural networks. At the same time, the knowledge of a larger physical scale the territory bounces back in the urban in a relationship of reciprocity and completeness. The objective research, therefore, tries to understand the roles played by Henrique de Novaes s works and academic education in the accomplishment of systematic modernization of Brazilian urban space and territory, recovering a little known historical figure by current historiography. It is proposed, as methodological axis, that the study of this professional career configures itself as an essential element for understanding the idea of progress embodied in the technical studies and proposals for improvements and sanitation nationwide in the first half of the twentieth century . The primary sources for the construction of this analysis were technical articles in journals of the period ( Clube de Engenharia , Viação e Revista Brasileira de Engenharia ), and technical reports, government messages, newspaper articles published at the time, autobiographical reports and the engineer s verbal communications with relatives. The work is structured in three chapters: "Biographical traces, academic education and 'technical and political' activities" illustrates the initiation into the technical, public and political environment; Chapter 2, "Technique and territory" outlines his network understanding through sanitation and transport services; Chapter 3 "Technique and City" describes the influence of polytechnics knowledge on the propositions of modernization of cities; Finally, "Final Thoughts: An Evaluation," presents an overview of the affiliations and practice of an engineer in the different scales, and its contribution to the modernization of Brazilian urban and territorial space

Summit of the Americas 1994-2009: selected indicators

Includes bibliography

Dinâmica regional e política urbana: Uma análise das cidades de porte médio da região administrativa de Campinas/SP

The process of internalization of development occurred in the state of Sao Paulo resulted in accelerated growth of intermediate cities leading to a pattern of development with sprawl, segregation and suburbanization. In this process stands the Administrative Region of Campinas, the hinterland region of higher growth and accumulating a larger number of medium-sized cities. Such questions imply the need for appropriate urban policies to confront these challenges, under risk to jeopardize the quality of life and environment of these cities. The implementation of the Estatuto da Cidade brings new perspectives for urban management in medium-sized cities. This study aims to evaluate the deployment of instruments of urban management in medium-sized cities in São Paulo, with emphasis on Administrative Region of Campinas, based on the Profile of Brazilian Municipalities 2008 conducted by IBGE. The results point to a worrying situation, as it did not see a correlation between the deployment of these instruments and the size, growth and income in the mid-sized cities.

Sprawling and Urban transportation system: Impacts in the city of Londrina, Parana, Brazil

After nearly 80 years since the construction of its core, represented today by the city's central area, Londrina, located in the state of Parana, has the appearance of a new city but its features and trends of planning policies depict the bad examples of Brazilian cities. With a booming urban growth, from north to south of the county, the urban interstices represented by big voids in the middle of the city created speculation and the concept of an ideal city slowly disappeared. With a metropolitan appearance and, at the same time, with small town aspects, Londrina stands out as an automobile-oriented city, a fact that has impacted the livelihood of the population, generating environmental impacts for all social classes. This paper discusses how the form of occupation in Londrina, characterized by the sprawl phenomenon and its relation to car preference as a mode of transportation has generated urban environmental impacts. It was concluded that the choice of using cars in Londrina, as well in other medium-sized Brazilian cities studied by the comparative method, has increased and has generated bottlenecks in traffic. As a consequence, there is a constant expropriation of properties for widening roads and at the same time, the presence of various densities and urban voids that form an uneven urban space and an obstacle to efficient urban planning. © 2012 WIT Press.

Cellular automata-based spatial dynamic modeling for analyzing urban land use change

This paper analyzes land use change in Rio Claro City and its surroundings, located in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, in the period from 1988 to 1995, using air-borne digital imagery and a cellular automata model. The simulation experiment was carried out in the Dinamica EGO platform and the results revealed a constrained urban sprawl, resulting from both the densification of residential areas implemented in previous years and the economic recession that led to an internal financial crisis in Brazil during the early 1990s. The simulation outputs were validated using a multi-resolution procedure based on a fuzzy similarity index and showed a satisfactory fitness in relation to the historical reference data. © 2013 IEEE.

Adensamento e habitação: a implantação do programa Minha Casa Minha Vida na cidade de Bauru (SP) sob a ótica da sustentabilidade

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

A importância da adoção de planos preventivos de defesa civil nos municípios: o caso de Ribeirão Preto (SP)

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

Política ambiental costeira: uma análise do seu impacto em Bragança-PA

Esta dissertação discorre sobre a política ambiental costeira, estruturada no Plano Nacional de Gerenciamento Costeiro - Lei Federal nº 7.661/88, ao alcance do município de Bragança/Pa. Mostra de que forma a intervenção do poder público na questão do uso dos recursos naturais e ocupação desordenada costeira consegue alterar a situação de degradação ambiental na costa bragantina. O objetivo maior foi analisar os impactos (quanto efeitos e produtos) dessa política em Bragança. Para isso, discutiu-se teoricamente sobre a estrutura de políticas públicas, descentralização político-administrativa, governança em múltiplos níveis e falhas de governo na gestão ambiental. Constatou-se que a gestão dos recursos naturais e territorial realizado na zona costeira brasileira, orientada pelo Programa GERCO, durante seus 20 anos de existência, é limitada e diferenciada nos estados e municípios litorâneos. Os resultados apontam avanços, insuficiências e equívocos na gestão costeira bragantina, pois, a própria forma organizativa desse Programa não é efetivamente integrada, descentralizada, participativa e coordenada; além dos ínfimos incentivos financeiros para a aplicação de seus instrumentos de planejamento e gestão.

Proposta metodológica para avaliação dos níveis de restrição do relevo ao uso urbano

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A produção e o consumo do espaço da habitação no setor imobiliário em Limeira-SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Realidade socioeconômica e ambiental de um agrupamento de bairros da zona norte de Teresina, Piauí

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

Análise dos processos e instrumentos de ordenação do território: comparação entre Brasil e Portugal

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

As Praças Centrais de Presidente Prudente-SP: avaliação do caráter como subsídio para intervenções projetuais

During the process of development and urban sprawl in the city of Presidente Prudente (SP), some factors as the emergence of new centralities, the change in lifestyles and the expansion of equipments and urban infrastructure contributed to the dismantling and little appropriation of the central open space system. In this sense, the work is about the loss of continuity between the central squares of the city - Monsenhor Sarrion Square, July 9 Square, Bandeira Square and Nossa Senhora Aparecida Square - using different methodologies for character evaluation of each square, identifying the inviting and unattractive aspects of their spaces. The relations between these squares and its surroundings are characterized by analyzing interesting visual played on sketches, to complement character evaluation. Among these studies, it is also analyzed two spatial structures related to the squares – Calçadão and Quintino Bocaiuva Street - which have important architectural referring to the city's history and contribute to the central open space system configuration. General considerations obtained through diagnosis provided subsidies for the projectual proposed intervention, which aims to provide appreciation of the character of these public spaces and their articulation, promoting their use and constituting, thus, an important urban-environment set