São Paulo, city-region: constitution and development dynamics of the São Paulo macrometropolis
This article deals with the emergence of the city-region in São Paulo (Brazil), called ‘macrometropolis’, and highlights some of the challenges facing this new territorial or spatial configuration in terms of globalisation and governance. It also stresses the productive changes that gave rise to it and sheds light on the constituent dynamics of the macrometropolis at different scales. The article affirms that metropolitan problems can no longer be interpreted without taking into account the new determinants of the macrometropolis of São Paulo, which implies considering the interaction of the metropolis with other urban centres bearing social, economic and environmental singularities.
THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT URBAN LAND USE TYPES ON AIR POLLUTION IN THE MEGACITY OF SÃO PAULO
Both human and natural processes influence air pollution in megacities. Analysis of sixteen years of pollutants from four monitoring sites (vehicular, commercial, residential and urban background (U-BG)) in the greater São Paulo Metropolitan Area found significant differences in pollutant concentrations according to land use types in all temporal scales of analysis (from diurnal to monthly time series). In the diurnal/weekly cycles, concentrations of primary pollutants are two to three times higher in the vehicular and residential sites, compared to the U-BG site, where ozone (O3) is almost 50% higher. In the seasonal scale, carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations increase 80% due to land use differences, and about 55% due to seasonaity. Seasonal variations of nitrogen monoxide (NO) and O3 are of comparable magnitude to land use differences. For coarse particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2),seasonal differences are greater than land use differences. In the longer time series, the U-BG site shows stronger and statistically significant correlations between the monthly time series of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and O3 (0.48) and MP10 (0.37), compared to the vehicular site (0.33 and 0.22, respectively). ese resultsconfirms that urban activity and land useplay a significant role in pollutant concentrations for all scales of analysis, though its influence becomes less pronounced with increasingly larger temporal scales, as air quality shis from a human-induced to a natural-induced system. ese findings may have implications for future decision-making and environmental, public health and transportation policies for similar megacitiesinvolving land use change.
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND COLONIALISM: REASONS FOR AFRICA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT?
It is probably an understatement to assert that Africa, the world’s second largest continent, is underdeveloped compared with other continents. Two major exogenous factors often cited for Africa’s development crisis are the so called ‘dual historical injustices’ – the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. It is often pointed out that while the former almost completely arrested and retarded Africa’s demographical growth for more than three centuries, evoked a perennial state of acrimony and warfare and created a tense and unprecedented atmosphere of insecurity which hindered economic activities and stifled local entrepreneurship and technological drive and dislocated Africa’s socio-economic and political structures and institutions; the latter tied African countries to the apron strings of western imperial powers thereby rendering the pre-conditions necessary for socio-economic and political transformation unachievable. This paper contends that while the history of Africa’s underdevelopment may be traceable to the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism, African leaders had made enormous contributions to the continent’s underdevelopment and backwardness. The paper concludes that irresponsible and irresponsive leadership, vampirism and prodigality, corruption, lack of respect for democratic ideals, insecurity, endemic civil wars, nepotism, etc are the fundamental causes of Africa’s underdevelopment.