General quality of urban greenery as a city indicator in Brazil in comparison with central Europe

Abstract

The evidence for climate change and its associated consequences, such as severe droughts, floods, and storms, exposed the need to investigate the ways that countries can cope with them, especially Brazil, which is a continental nation. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the urgency to consider global uncertainties. To audit it, the Pondělíček method, an indicator of the general quality of urban greenery (IOKZM), was employed. This approach considers four factors to indicate if one city is sustainable: city altitude [m], average annual temperature [°C], average annual precipitation [mm], and the total greenery area [km2] per inhabitant per year. The outcomes demonstrate that, regardless independently of the Brazilian region, geographic localization, estimated altitude range, or precipitation range may not strongly influence the BIOKZM. The impact measured in the indicator is significantly influenced by the greenery areas in Brazil. Those estimated areas are much smaller than European Union ones. Teresina’s Fkes demonstrates that if the greenery area is more than 5 (i.e., more than 50 percent), the IOKZM will be a positive outcome. The IOKZM calculated for Brazilian cities is interesting precisely because of their location in the southern hemisphere, as all the evidence of climate change subtly suggests that the climate in the southern hemisphere changes in a different way. Hence, this article can be used as an initial tool to assess whether the chosen Brazilian cities (Belém, São Luís, Guarulhos, Campinas, Porto Alegre, Teresina, and João Pessoa) can be considered “smart cities”. It is a step towards guiding mayors and other public figures in charge to create and maintain smart cities in Brazil. In addition, further studies should be conducted to contribute to this collaborative effort.

Keywords

• green cities
• climate change
• global warming
• Brazil
• smart cities