480
D. S. Barcellos et al.
1 Introduction
The process of urban growth, accentuated mainly after the Industrial Revolution,
increased the pace of transformation of cities, causing spatial, economic and populational expansion. In Brazil, this reality was not different, since the urban population of
the Brazilian population grew from 58 to 80% between 1970 and 2000 and, according
to the last IBGE Demographic Census (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) done in 2010 (IBGE 2010), out of a total of 191 million people in the country,
84% were already living in urban areas. With the increase of population living in
cities, there is a consequent increase in demand for the use of natural resources to
meet human consumption, often in disarray with the capacity for ecosystem renewal.
Focusing on a more specific reality, in Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná,
there is the case of the Belém rivers basin, which has symbolic relevance within
the local context. Despite this, it is verified that the environmental degradation of
the basin is quite serious, since it is polluted and contaminated by domestic sewage
and industrial effluents (Bollmann and Edwiges 2008). Public management of environmental issues in urban settings are traditionally peculiar. Such character comes
from its interdisciplinary and interinstitutional characteristics, which brings with it
the demand for reorganization and systematic restructuring. These, both from the
point of view of administrative political practices and by the clamor for new patterns
of proactive participation. These conditions, by itself, characterizes a panorama of
advancement to urban environmental sustainability (Rosa et al. 2008).
Within this scenario, it is of great relevance for the continuity of the provision of
good quality ecosystem services to the cities covered by the Belém River basin, that
sustainable development and environmental management integrate the relationship
between the use of natural resources, the construction of territoriality and management processes (Giaretta 2011). Thus, for the present research, governance is
presented as a form of mediation between State, civil society and economic agents
that, through the action of multiple actors and social power, extends the mechanisms
of participatory democracy in opposition to the traditional perspective of centralized
administration (Jacobi et al. 2015). In other words, governance, when related to environmental issues, acts as a way of governing natural resources through sustainable
development strategies motivated by relevant actors.
Employing governance instruments focused on optimizing urban environmental
management, it is possible to reconcile and integrate new forms of social participation
through more democratic deliberative practices (Frey 2012). Such strategy can bring
even more significant gains in the issue of mitigation of socio-environmental impacts,
necessary to the analyzed reality. The high levels of pollution in the Belém river basin
may be related, among other possible causes, to failures in the management of water
resources, due to the inefficiency of the National Water Resources Management
System (Bracht 2008). Thus, the main objective of this article was to identify the
contributions of environmental governance to the management of water resources in
the urban environment, presenting perspectives and challenges for the studied case.
D. S. Barcellos et al.
1 Introduction
The process of urban growth, accentuated mainly after the Industrial Revolution,
increased the pace of transformation of cities, causing spatial, economic and populational expansion. In Brazil, this reality was not different, since the urban population of
the Brazilian population grew from 58 to 80% between 1970 and 2000 and, according
to the last IBGE Demographic Census (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) done in 2010 (IBGE 2010), out of a total of 191 million people in the country,
84% were already living in urban areas. With the increase of population living in
cities, there is a consequent increase in demand for the use of natural resources to
meet human consumption, often in disarray with the capacity for ecosystem renewal.
Focusing on a more specific reality, in Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná,
there is the case of the Belém rivers basin, which has symbolic relevance within
the local context. Despite this, it is verified that the environmental degradation of
the basin is quite serious, since it is polluted and contaminated by domestic sewage
and industrial effluents (Bollmann and Edwiges 2008). Public management of environmental issues in urban settings are traditionally peculiar. Such character comes
from its interdisciplinary and interinstitutional characteristics, which brings with it
the demand for reorganization and systematic restructuring. These, both from the
point of view of administrative political practices and by the clamor for new patterns
of proactive participation. These conditions, by itself, characterizes a panorama of
advancement to urban environmental sustainability (Rosa et al. 2008).
Within this scenario, it is of great relevance for the continuity of the provision of
good quality ecosystem services to the cities covered by the Belém River basin, that
sustainable development and environmental management integrate the relationship
between the use of natural resources, the construction of territoriality and management processes (Giaretta 2011). Thus, for the present research, governance is
presented as a form of mediation between State, civil society and economic agents
that, through the action of multiple actors and social power, extends the mechanisms
of participatory democracy in opposition to the traditional perspective of centralized
administration (Jacobi et al. 2015). In other words, governance, when related to environmental issues, acts as a way of governing natural resources through sustainable
development strategies motivated by relevant actors.
Employing governance instruments focused on optimizing urban environmental
management, it is possible to reconcile and integrate new forms of social participation
through more democratic deliberative practices (Frey 2012). Such strategy can bring
even more significant gains in the issue of mitigation of socio-environmental impacts,
necessary to the analyzed reality. The high levels of pollution in the Belém river basin
may be related, among other possible causes, to failures in the management of water
resources, due to the inefficiency of the National Water Resources Management
System (Bracht 2008). Thus, the main objective of this article was to identify the
contributions of environmental governance to the management of water resources in
the urban environment, presenting perspectives and challenges for the studied case.