13. Rio/Urban World Flashcards
what is the definition of urbanisation?
urbanisation is the proportion of the worlds population that live in cities and urban areas (this is growing)
What are the 2 reasons why cities grow?
- natural increase (more births than deaths)
- rural urban migration
What are 3 urban pull factors?
- access to higher paying and better jobs
- access to better medical facilities
- access to better education
What are 3 rural push factors?
- poor harvests can mean malnutrition (as not enough to eat)
- farming is generally poorly paid
- rural areas are isolated and have little access to facilities
What is some basic info about Rio and its zones?
- 5% of Brazils’ GDP
- North Zone (industrail + favelas)
- West Zone (wealthy coastal suburb)
- Centro (CBD, financial centre)
- South (tourist areas)
What is the challenge of healthcare in Rio?
- 6 hospitals in Rio
- 55% of people do not have a family clinic
- Services are poor (for pregnant and elderly woman) especially on West Zone
What are some solutions to healthcare for Rio?
- medical staff to health kits to favela in Santa Marta, which is 13km from a hospital and detected and treated diseases
- increased life expectancy and decreased infant mortality
What are some education challenges in Rio?
- only 50% of people those beyond 14 continue schooling
- many of these drop out and enter dug trafficking
- school enrollment is low as schools are in short supply, there is a lack of money, shortage of teachers and lack of training and pay for teachers
What are some solutions for education in Rio?
- the authoritoes have encouraged locals to volunteer in schools
- giving school grants to pay families to help they stay in school
- making money available for free lessons in the Rochina Favela
- a new private university in the Rochina Favela
What are some water challenges in Rio?
- 12% of Rios population does not have access to running water
- 37% of water is lost to leaky pipes, fraud and illegal access
- this problem is worsening
What are some water supply solutions in Rio?
- 7 new treatment plants opened between 1998 and 2014
- most work concentrated around Olympic Village and favelas
- 300km of new pipes laid
What are some energy challenges in Rio?
- whole city suffers frequent balckouts due to electricity shortage
- many poorer people in Rio get electricity by illegally tapping the mains which is unsafe
What are some energy solutions for Rio?
- 60km of new power lines
- new nuclear generator
- developing new Simplicio hydro-electric complex which increases electricity by 30% and cost $2 billion
What percentage of Brazils employment is in Rio?
6%
What type of employment are present in Rio?
- service industries (banking or finance)
- retail
- construction
- steelworks (rio has largest steelworks in SA)
- tourism
- manafacturing
- oil and petrochemical industries
- port industrues
What are the problems with unemployment and inequality in Rio
- people protest about high tax, poor healthcare and poor education
- unemployment is one of the reasons for the vast inequality (the richest 1% own 12% while the poorest 50% own 13%)
What is the problem with unemployment in the favelas?
- unemployment rate is over 20%
- most people work in the informal economy and pay no tax, have no insurance and are poorly paid (less than £60 a month)
What is being done about unemployment in Rio?
- the local government is using education to reduce youth unemployment
- they have a Schools of Tommorow program
- child care is available is for teen parents, and courses for adults who wish to return to studying
What is the crime problem in Rio?
- murder, kidnapping, carjackings and armed assualt are regular in Rio
- powerful gangs control many favelas
What is being done to control the crime problem in Rio? (+ Criticisms)
- Pacifiying Police Units set up in 2013 to reclaim favelas from drug dealers
- police have taken control of crime ridden favelas
- lead to lower crime rate, increased property prices and more tourism
- people argue that police are targeting those to Olympic village only
What are the problems with air pollution and traffic congestion in Rio?
- air pollution causes 5,000 deaths per year
- due to lots of traffic fumes and mist from the Atlantic mixes with vehicle exhausts and pollutants
- number of cars in Rio grown by 40% in the last decade
- people drive cars as crime rates are extremely high
What are some solutions to traffic congestion and air pollution in Rio?
- there has been an expansion of the metro to the South Zone and Barra da Tijuca
- new toll roads in the city centre (reduce congestion)
- coastal roads are one way during rush hour to ease traffic flow
What are the issues with water pollution in Rio?
- Guanabara bay is highly polluted
- commercial finsihing had declined 90% in the last 20 years
- danger that it can affect Copacabana beach which would negatively impact tourism and the local economy
- rivers are polluted from open sewers in favelas
- ships empty fuel tanks in the bay
- 50 tonnes on industrial waste in the bay per day
What are the solutions to water pollution in Rio?
- overseas aid used to reduce amount of sewage
- 12 new sewage works built costing $68 million
- fines for ships discharging fuel
What are the problems with waste pollution in Rio?
- mostly in favelas due to steep slopes and bad roads means waste collectrion lorries cannot come
- this means most waste is dumped and causes cholera and encourages rats
What are the solutions with waste pollution in Rio?
- power plant set up near Uni of Rio which uses methane/biogas (from rotting rubbish) , produces electricity for 1000 homes and consumes 30 tonnes per day
what are favelas?
squatter settlements
what percentage of Rio’s population live in favelas?
22%
What is the info about the Rochinha favela?
- largest favela, overlooks rich beach South Zone
- population of over 150,000
What have the improvements to Rochinha favela been?
- improvments by local authority and people
- 90% of houses built with brick, with sewage systems, running water and electricity
- houses with TV’s and fridges
- health facilities and a private university
What are construction challenges of favelas/squatter settlements?
- houses are poorly constructed as they were built illegally
- many favelas are built on steep slopes and heavy rain from storms can cause landslides (13,000 lost their homes in 2014)
- limited road access due to slopes
What are unemployment challenges of favelas/squatter settlements?
- unemployment as high at 20%
- poorly paid work in the informal sector
- less than 75£ per month
What are crime challenges of favelas/squatter settlements?
- murder rate of 20 per 1000 (high)
- drug gangs dominate favelas
- people distrust police due to violence and corruption
What are health challenges of favelas/squatter settlements?
- inafnt mortality rates can be as high as 50 per 1000
- burning rubbish sets fire to wooden houses and causes respiratory issues
- waste is not disposed of and builds up in the streets
What are service challenges of favelas/squatter settlements?
- in non improved favelas, half of the people have no sewage, 30% no electricity and 12% no running water
- sewers are often open drain
What has been done in the Favela Bairro project?
- site and service scheme
- in complexo de Alemao there have been paved (and named) raods, drainage systems for better sanitation, new health, leisure and education facilities
- there has also been a cable car system from Complexo de Alemao to hubs of employment and residents get 1 free ticket per day
- mortages avaliable for people to buy homes
- UPP (police) set up to reduce crime
has the Favela Bairro project been successful?
- quality of life, employment and mobility has increased
- but, newly built infrastructure is not being mantained
- but, budget of 1 billion may not cover every favela
- rent rises in favelas mean poorest residents are worse off
- more training is needed for literacy and employment
