- Municipal and Regional Planning in Brazil – An overview on a contemporary planning process    1987 kb by    Magalháes Pereira da Silva, Jonathas | jonathas@mpsassociados.com.br    Short Outline This article is the result of considerations on professional practices and academic research. Our objective is to draw an overview on regional and urban planning conditions in Brazil through the investigation of progresses and contradictions. Abstract This article is the result of considerations on professional practices and academic research related to municipal director plans and of discussions about environmental impact studies for large regional infrastructural enterprises. From 1984, Brazil, went into a process of decentralization of political power, with increased value for local planning. Under the 1988 Federal Constitution municipal planning was adopted as an instrument to implement the “social function of property” aiming to subdue private property rights. The displacement from federal to municipal authority resulted on some improvements for territorial planning, in recent years. It brought nonetheless, at the same time, some hindrance to regional planning development. This article addresses difficulties and opportunities for the development and implementation of regional public policies, via case studies on different regions of the country, comprising the States of São Paulo and Espírito Santo (South East region), Mato Grosso (Center West region) and Rondônia (North region). From the analysis of planning processes for 19 city governments under the Campinas Metropolitan Region (São Paulo State) it is possible to verify the results and relate them to Federal and State Government efforts to promote and support municipal director plans. As an example of those efforts we consider case studies on 11 city governments that comprise the highland region of Espírito Santo and the city governments of the Cuiabá Metropolitan Region (Mato Grosso). Follows the discussion on how the region’s natural resources grow to be considered and controlled as strategic for the economic development. At last some of the regional implementation of public policies are identified, as an answer to the existing infrastructure deficit of the country, taking as an example the implementation processes of hidroelectrical power plants on the Amazon basin. Our objective is to draw an overview on regional and urban planning conditions in Brazil through the investigation of progresses and contradictions. Keywords planning, master plan, territorial management. Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper