A Framework for Urban Environmental Planning in Brazil

Brazil faces numerous environmental challenges despite having many laws and policies in place. The implementation process of such laws and policies does not exist a majority of the time, affecting the quality of environmental governance in the country. Within the urban planning context, the City Statute law enacted in 2001 included the environmental dimension of urbanization; however, the wording of this inclusion was vague and broad. For instance, two environmental assessment planning tools of the law are not mandatory at the federal level and are without a defined scope. In this Exploration, a new framework focusing on the environmental dimension of urbanization is proposed. These two planning tools can be developed using the framework, which is based on the concept of carrying capacity and geographical information systems; it includes a combination of participatory mapping (i.e., increasing knowledge) and tactical urbanism (i.e., increasing awareness) to enhance public participation, targeting low-income populations. This combination was chosen because by increasing the knowledge and awareness of the poor who will participate in environmentalrelated projects, it will empower and allow them to exert their influence as citizens more fully

Cores and Peripheries: Spatial Analysis of HCV Voucher Distribution in the San Francisco

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is touted as a mechanism for providing low income households with mobility, and through that mobility, access to higher opportunity neighborhoods (HUD, 2006; McClure, 2014; Winnick, 1995). However, the success of the voucher program requires an existing supply of available housing units with landlords who are willing to participate in the program. Tight housing markets, where households are most in need of rent subsidies, are typically also the most difficult markets to find available units and willing landlords, resulting in limited choices for HCV households (Basolo and Nguyen, 2005; Khadduri, 2005). In these conditions, we can expect to find that voucher holders behave like other housing seekers and search out locations where they can maximize their housing dollars in terms of both unit characteristics and locational amenities