The Limits Of Urban Sustainability (original) (raw)

2013, WIT Transactions on State-of-the-art in Science and Engineering

This chapter examines the historical changes that defi ned the environmental issues of the Latin American large cities in three political, economic and social stages. During the fi rst metropolitan process, between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, hygienists promoted the sanitation regulations governing the construction of the urban space and contributed also to defi ne the modern concept of urban environment. The urban dynamics during the cycle of industrialization, modernization and urbanization attempted to plan the production and the occupation of the territory, but the public programs were insuffi cient to provide employment to a wide range of sectors. By the end of the century, the environmental crisis arrived to the metropolitan areas together with the impoverishment of the population and the social marginalization. From the binomial 'hygiene/health' of the hygienists, through the ecological notion of 'habitat', up to the idea of 'quality of life', the defi nition of the urban environment has evolved to amalgamate incumbencies unimaginable in the past. The consequences of this conceptual shift impact directly on the management alternatives of the metropolitan areas.

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