Economic, Human, and Environmental Development

   CONTENTS  

Foreword

Research Structures

Energy, Environment, and Biodiversity

Humanities and Ethics

Culture and Education

Society and Development

Information and Communication Technology

Biology and Health

Research Structures and Researchers

About

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Economics with a socio-environmental focus

The role of the economy in topics related to sustainability is of broadened importance, going beyond analysis and indicating solutions by data crossing. It is with this purpose that the Research Group on Economic, Human, and Environmental Development (GDEHMA), operates, led by researchers Izete Bagolin and Osmar Tomaz de Souza.

To estimate the social, economic, and environmental benefits from the management of solid urban waste, GDEHMA developed a study that began in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and that intends to cover the entire country. The question that drives the activities in this research is: how much can be saved per ton of solid waste if there is appropriate management of it, following the concepts of reduction, reuse, and recycling? Recycling, which is paramount for this study, makes it possible to show the real existence of the benefits. The total potential of the materials in RS was estimated at R$ 12.7 million. However, currently, of the 1.6 million tons of solid waste produced per year, only 31% is destined to go to controlled landfills. The situation worsens with the survey that shows that only 53 municipalities out of 240 from Rio Grande do Sul report the existence of social work linked to selection and recycling of waste. This fact does not contribute to the reality of an appropriate destination for dry waste desired by the National Policy for Solid Waste from 2010, which predicts the extinction of landfills by 2014. The research has the challenge of improving the estimation methodology, which may represent an incentive for the use of recovered or recycled materials by the industry and the indication of integrated models of waste management.

Another line of activity of the group covers the construction of multidimensional indicators based on the methodology used in the Human Development Index (HDI). The main objective is to obtain an indicator that measures the socioeconomic and rural environmental development for agricultural establishments in the southern region of Brazil. In the future, a ranking will be generated for the municipalities, detailing the information collected in the census, making it a tool for the decision-making of governments and private businesses.