4 Framework in action: Lessons from Urbanization Reviews
This chapter presents case studies of seven Urbanization Review pilot countries—Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Vietnam—with lessons from each.
BRAZIL Eighty-four percent of Brazil’s population lives in urban areas, and urban population growth is expected to drive future population growth. Over 1970–2000, the urban share of Brazil’s population climbed from 56 to 82 percent (figure 4.1). Brazil’s cities generate about 90 percent of GDP. With this burgeoning urban population, Brazil must successfully manage planning and connecting across the system of cities.
How Brazil is urbanizing Large urban centers (populations greater than 100,000) dominate Brazil’s system of cities. While this system varies considerably by region, 60 percent of all municipalities
The Brazil Urbanization Review has been prepared by a team led by Nancy Lozano-Gracia comprising Hyoung Gun Wang, Henry Jewell, Somik V. Lall, and Eugenia Suarez. Consultants involved in this work were Geoffrey J. D. Hewings, Andre M. Maghalaes, Roberta de Moraes Rocha, and Marcelo E. Alves da Silva.
have populations greater than 100,000 (figure 4.2). These cities are more prevalent in the southeast, where 70 percent of the urban population lives in large urban centers and 23 percent in metropolises (with an urban population of more than 4 million). But Brazil’s 12 metropolitan areas have been losing ground as smaller cities attract more people—the percentage of urban population living in the 12 metropolitan areas rose between the 1940s and 1970 but has fallen since. Home to the vast majority of the country’s population, Brazil’s cities are the center of economic activity. Today, Brazil mirrors the behavior of developed countries, where income starts to disperse as the country approaches high-income levels. The share in GDP of the 12 largest metropolitan areas has been declining slowly, from about 46 percent in 2000 to about 43 percent in 2008. São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro led the decline, moving from about 33 to 30 percent in these eight years. Dispersion of GDP may also be related to the decline in productivity growth in the past years in larger cities, as well as to increased congestion, bad management,
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