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A City-Region in the Forest and its Challenges for Environmental and Health Sustainability

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Urban Environment

Abstract

Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, is the most important city in the Amazon region. It has faced very rapid demographic and economic growth whilst at the same time having to deal with a scarcity of essential services and a lack of urban planning. Using the concept of local and regional influence from a large urban area, the aim of this paper is to describe the challenges Manaus faces in relation to sustainability, in terms of the environment and health, taking into account its spatial location in a region of tropical ecosystems. The multi-sectoral indicator analysis proposed by WHO, the DPSEEA matrix, was applied using secondary data from Brazilian public institutions. Interviews were also carried out with public managers, academic experts and representatives of civil society. Results show essential areas to be addressed in relation to the sustainability of Manaus at two different levels: the urban area and its intense relationship with the natural surroundings, resulting in significant health issues where serious infectious diseases due to poor sanitation such as dengue fever, malaria and leishmaniasis predominate, whilst at the same time, there is also an increase in chronic diseases and external causes. In the Amazon region we observed that the prominent role of Manaus, that result of an economic model of incentives to industry, has led to strong economic dynamism, making the city highly attractive to migrants, resulting in rapid and uncontrolled population growth with profound inequalities and an increase in environmental health problems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “…The Industrial Zone of Manaus (…) is the basis of our economy [and also] a big long-term risk (…) It is in our interest to think about the existing chains and how these can be integrated with the forest.”

  2. 2.

    “…this is a history that starts back in 1967, when the Free Trade Zone of Manaus was established, (…) [outside the capital] they used to think that Manaus was an ’Eldorado’ where employment was easy to find and everything was easy…”.

  3. 3.

    “…The forest ends and the tarmac begins; on the other hand, (…) [it is] a city that is crossed by many igarapes [streams] and associated to this is the fact that we have a very low proportion of basic sanitation…” “(…) Malaria has become a great concern for the city. There is a high incidence of carriers of the Malaria Vivax in the suburbs (…). Leishmaniasis is another disease which has emerged in large numbers in Manaus (…) [and] illnesses caused by forest viruses, (…) We call these haemorrhagic febrile syndromes, caused by viruses we do not yet know…”.

  4. 4.

    “[migrants from the state] come in their canoes into the traffic, that’s why the traffic is chaotic”. “[a] city without trees, which does not value the human being, the pedestrian”. “…we do not have a public body that can work out how many kilometres of traffic jams there are, analyse the level of pollution in the air, this does not exist, we have not planned for this…”. “(…) We need to keep an eye on the advancing deforestation for urban expansion and another eye on the city that is growing in a vertical direction, leading to chronic, cardiac diseases…”.

  5. 5.

    “…Manaus grew tremendously, the rest of the Amazonas state emptied out. In the neighbouring municipalities you can find some types of activity that are directly linked to Manaus, but those which are more distant, they have really emptied out…”. “…I think that the [industrial] centre destroyed the enterprising capacity of the rest of the state…”.

  6. 6.

    “…given the speed with which the city grows (…) [the great challenge] is for the public sector to grow in order to reach the same size (…), each year the peripheries grow larger, there are new districts, new urban structures…”.

  7. 7.

    “…In terms of the industrial complex, it is in our interest to think about existing chains and integrate them with the forest…”.

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Acknowledgements

Fundação Oswaldo Cruz—Fiocruz (edital 01/2001 “Cidades Saudáveis”); FAPESP—Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (proc.n.2010/20899-0); and INCLINE—Interdisciplinary Climate Investigation Center/Universidade de São Paulo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Saúde Ambiental, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Dr. Arnaldo, 715, 01246-904, São Paulo, Brazil

    Leandro Luiz Giatti

  2. Instituto Leônidas e Maria Deane, Fiocruz, Amazonia, Brazil

    Sylvain JM Desmoulière

  3. Centro de Estudos de Saúde do Trabalhador e Ecologia Humana, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Carlos Machado Freitas

Authors
  1. Leandro Luiz Giatti
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  2. Sylvain JM Desmoulière
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  3. Carlos Machado Freitas
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Correspondence to Leandro Luiz Giatti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Civil and Env. Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Sébastien Rauch

  2. Dept of Civil and Env. Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Gregory Morrison

  3. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Stefan Norra

  4. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Nina Schleicher

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Giatti, L., Desmoulière, S., Freitas, C. (2013). A City-Region in the Forest and its Challenges for Environmental and Health Sustainability. In: Rauch, S., Morrison, G., Norra, S., Schleicher, N. (eds) Urban Environment. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7756-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7756-9_6

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