Riverbed: Backbone of the City

Summary

After the fall of the Franco dictatorship in Spain in 1975, citizens felt freer to express their opinions on many topics. Neighborhood Associations in cities like Valencia flourished as residents advocated for their preferences. City residents wrote op-eds and wrote articles to pressure government to listen to their input. This is the story of how government officials in the city of Valencia responded to citizen demands about one issue, and how it changed the city for everyone.

Discussion questions

In your view, who are the most significant “actors” in this story?
Does the story remind you of a current or past situation in your city?
How do public spaces in your city impact health, quality of life, and/or equity?
Have you had an experience where having a limited budget, or the solution unfolding over time has provided unexpected benefits?

Bio

Ramon Marrades is an Urban Economist, Director of Placemaking Europe and Founder of Vigla. He has spent his career creating sustainable, equitable, and lively public spaces that prioritize the needs of people and community. He is passionate about port cities, culture, and innovation and has worked as strategic advisor to a number of cities and large-scale development projects. Marrades is based in Valencia, Spain.

Master Class 2 — The Power of Vibrant Public Spaces

Partnering Community and Government,

Services and Climate Resilient Infrastructure,

Social Connection and A Sense of Well Being

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Vale Encantado: A Community-Led Biodigester Project

Summary

In the heart of a rainforest within the city of Rio de Janeiro, over 100 people live in a favela with no infrastructure or services. One community leader collaborated with an outside biodigester "evangelist" to lead residents in building their own community size bio-digester that provides bio gas generated from organic waste. The biodigester solves sanitation issues by reducing food waste, improves self-reliance by providing free fuel, creates eco-tourism jobs by supplying fuel for a restaurant that serves eco-tourists.

Discussion questions

Are there projects in your community that have been led and maintained entirely by community members?

What might be some advantages of having independently led community projects, with no government involvement?

What might be some disadvantages of having independently led community projects, with no government involvement?

Bio

Otávio Barros, Community Leader, President Residents' Association
Otávio Barros is a fifth-generation resident of the Vale Encantado community (an informal settlement within the Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and president of the Vale Encantado Residents’ Association. He launched the community’s sustainable tourism project in 2005 and has grown the project into a cooperative that leads hikes and tours in the forest and offers unique local vegan dishes to their visitors – made mostly of the crops from their own community gardens. Otávio, in collaboration with Solar Cities and with support from local University, led residents in development of a sustainable sewerage system that treats the community’s sewage through an on-site biodigester and natural filtering system. Five homes are currently connected to the system, and a separate biodigester uses food waste to provide biogas to fuel the cooperative kitchen. The community has also has installed solar panels to generate their own energy.

Thomas Henry Culhane, Urban Ecologist
Dr. T.H. Culhane is a professor of Environmental Sustainability and Justice at the Patel College for Global Solutions at University of South Florida, Tampa. He is passionate about transforming food waste into fuel and fertilizer, collecting biogas and bioslurry, to not only cook food, heat water and generate clean electricity, but to grow new nutritious food. Culhane is co-founder and president of Solar CITIES Inc., a not-for-profit environmental technology training organization that teaches members of impoverished urban and rural communities around the world how to build their own home and community scale biodigesters and vertical aeroponics food production systems with the goal of eliminating all waste. Culhane lives with and uses these technologies in his daily life at the Rosebud Continuum Eco-Science and Sustainability Education Center in Land O Lakes Florida where he resides.

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