Overview of sustainability in an urban metropolitan context in the Amazon from the perspective of two international tools

Abstract

In a metropolitan area the physical boundaries between the municipalities that compose it are practically indistinguishable. Metropolitan areas are characterized by an intense flow of people goods and services, as well as problems and issues that go beyond municipal jurisdiction. These issues should be evaluated and discussed in a comprehensive and interrelated way, especially in relation to the metropolitan management and sustainability perspective. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of Belém Metropolitan area, Pará state, Brazil, from the perspective of two internationally well-known systems, the Barometer of Sustainability (BS) and the Dashboard of Sustainability (PS). From the application of the two systems, we sought to test if these tools produce similar results and thus to discuss about their main limitations, advantages and disadvantages in assessing sustainability. The results show that, in general, the systems have the same tendency, but there were some distortions. Despite this, regardless of the tool chosen, both offer a broad diagnosis about the themes and dimensions of sustainability. These informations can serve as a basis for policy formulation and definition of actions and priorities.