Glacial Lakes - Nepal

Visited October 2009

An emerging climate change driven threat for high-altitude communities is the flash flooding of valleys when glacial dams burst. Accelerated melting of glaciers is expanding their lakes and putting pressure on the earthen damns originally created by the glaciers.

On an expedition in Nepal in October 2009 I saw the effects of one such flooding event and also another glacial lake which is of great concern to local communities.

In 1998, a portion of the Sabai Glacier, a hanging glacier at the head of the Hinku Valley broke off and plunged into the lake below. The lake burst its dam and decimated the valley below - which we trekked up - for tens of kilometres.

At the base of Island Peak, glaciers, such as those coming off Lhotse, have been forming an enormous glacial lake at the rate of 74m of length per annum in recent years. Imja Tsho’s (Island Lake’s) head dam is not strong and if the dam bursts it will likely destroy much of the Khumbu Valley, the ‘tourist highway’ up into the Everest region. This would be a huge disaster for local communities and assumedly the Nepalese economy.

Curitiba, Brazil

Visited September 2009

Curitiba is one of the world’s great sustainable city case studies. Under Mayor Jaime Lerner (later state governor) and starting in the 1970’s, Curitiba implemented sustainability strategies which today makes the city one of the most desirable in Brazil to live in and one of the most attractive in Latin America in which to conduct business. The city has a population of 1.8 million (from 0.5 million in the 1960s) and the greater municipal area has 3.5 million inhabitants.

Visiting Curitiba was more like visiting a European city than a Brazilian one in terms of quality of the built environment. Under Lerner’s vision its public space has increased from 0.5m2 per inhabitant to 50m2 and it is visually a green city. Its industrial park developments were apparently originally mocked for being ‘golf courses’, but Curitiba was successful in attracting relatively clean and profitable industry such as auto-manufacture with Renault and Audi.

The Rapid Bus Transit (RBT) is probably the stand-out feature of Lerner’s vision. With a very innovative and efficient bus system  - including the iconic tubular bus shelters - he was able to mobilise the city at a cost of approximately one fiftieth of an underground system. The RBT did not need to be subsidised and the avoidance of debt enabled other important government investment in the city.

There is now a push to build an underground as the city’s citizens largely believe that would be commensurate with the status of the city. The person I met with at Jaime Lerner’s office believed that with the massive growth in number of people moving into the city since the 1970s, a relatively small portion understand the original vision, including the value of the bus system. Much of the new generation of inhabitants do not understand the remarkable transformation that Curitiba went through, they only know it as the prosperous city of today.

Curitiba’s approach has been adopted by other cities in the world such as Bogata.

Rio Das Pedras - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Visited September 2009

Rio Das Pedras is an old Favela in Rio De Janeiro that has progressed through several stages of evolution towards a thriving community and local economy.

Well beyond the postcard parts of Rio seen by the world, Rio Das Pedras is a community that was established in the 1960’s and initially grew organically with new residents incrementally adding brick dwellings. Rio Das Pedras means ‘River of Bricks’.

Its residents are primarily from the north east of Brazil and the tightness of its community has meant that it has been fortunate in avoiding the control of drug gangs, as is prevalent in much of Rio’s favelas.

As the favela grew, its residents were able to establish small businesses and an economy evolved. It was able to invest in some basic infrastructure and public spaces. Eventually it was able to form an association, a governing body for such investment in the community.

In recent years, Rio Das Pedras has been receiving investment for new residential developments under Rio’s massive favela development and integration program. It still has many challenges including corruption, water pollution and poor infrastructure such as electricity.