The economic, social and environmental problems of Salvador result from the fact that the city's rulers do not think of all the parts related to the development of Salvador in a systemic way, encompassing economic, social and environmental aspects, as well as regional development, also contemplating their relationship with the Metropolitan Region of Salvador and the dynamic areas of the State of Bahia. The main emphasis of the rulers of Salvador has been to carry out works on an ad hoc basis dissociated from an integrated development plan of the city.

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HOW TO OVERCOME THE IMMENSE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF SALVADOR
Fernando Alcoforado *
Salvador is a low-income regional metropolis with economic indicators well below the
metropolis and metropolitan regions of South and Southeast Brazil. Salvador is the
Brazilian capital with greater unemployment and lower income. Salvador is, among the
capitals of Brazil, the one with the lowest GDP per capita and the lowest GDP growth
rate. In the formation of the GDP of Salvador, agriculture contributes 0.06%, industry
with 20.99% and services with 78.94%. It is perceived, therefore, that Salvador is a
predominantly city of services. Salvador's economy is undoubtedly a service economy
heavily supported by tourism, real estate and services of many different natures.
In order to develop the economy of Salvador, it is necessary to increase the economic
activity of the municipality with the development of tourism, of the civil construction
industry, besides encouraging the production in Salvador of goods and services now
imported from other parts of Brazil and abroad and the production for export of goods
and services to the municipalities of Bahia and other regions of Brazil to raise GDP,
reduce the unemployment rate and raise the income level of Salvador's population. In
addition, the small urban food industry, construction materials, residential construction,
furniture, graphics and the expansion of personal services, real estate services,
neighborhood retailing, and trade in building materials should be encouraged.
It is necessary to increase the tourism in Salvador that has been losing competitiveness
in relation to the most attractive tourist ventures existing in the North Coast of the State
of Bahia and in other cities of the Northeast. Efforts must be made to attract
international groups interested in investing in the area of lodging / leisure facilities,
construction of hotels, resorts and hostels in Salvador, publicizing the Carnival of
Salvador widely in Brazil and abroad to attract the maximum of tourists and make
efforts to make tourism ventures located in Salvador more attractive than those on the
North Coast of Bahia and other cities in the Northeast.
It is also necessary to reverse the decline of the construction industry in Salvador,
which, until the outbreak of the crisis in 2014, employed around 50,000 workers and is
therefore a labor-intensive sector and, in just one year, seven thousand jobs disappeared
in the capital of Bahia according to data from the General Register of Employed and
Unemployed (Caged-Ministry of Labor), which corresponds to about 13% of the salary
mass. The losses are progressive because there are no new works beginnings. It is
urgent to encourage real estate expansion in Salvador with the concession of tax
incentives for those who build and credit for the buyer of the real estate.
There is an urgent need to increase business services in Salvador, which ensure an
infrastructure capable of attracting and maintaining investments, among which are
corporate services, knowledge intensive, leisure and business tourism, including two of
its most dynamic segments - cultural tourism and events; and social services of
collective consumption, which can be increasingly exported to other regions of Bahia
and even to other states, especially in the areas of education (higher education) and
health (medical pole) to constitute the backbone of the economy in the 21st century.
This initiative was presented by the economist Paulo Henrique Almeida in an article
under the title A economia de Salvador e a formação de sua Região Metropolitana (The
economy of Salvador and the formation of its Metropolitan Region) published in the

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website <http://books.scielo.org/id/36d/pdf/carvalho-9788523209094-02.pdf>. In order
to do so, it is necessary to promote the agglutination in Salvador of services of various
natures to serve the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, where a robust productive park is
concentrated, the dynamic areas of the State of Bahia (municipalities of Simões Filho,
Camaçari, Lauro de Freitas, Feira de Santana, municipalities of the North and South
Coast of Bahia and the regions under the influence of Juazeiro, Vitória da Conquista,
Irecê, Guanambi and Barreiras) and other Brazilian states.
The economic progress of Salvador will not occur to the fullest extent unless measures
are adopted that also lead to social progress and the defense of the environment through
the adoption of strategies that contribute to making it a sustainable city. It should be
noted that sustainable cities are those that have a development policy to promote
economic and social progress compatible with the preservation of the natural
environment for the benefit of present and future generations. Sustainable cities have as
a guideline the planning and control of land use, in order to avoid the degradation of
natural resources. A sustainable city must have clear and comprehensive policies for
sanitation, garbage collection and treatment; management of water, with collection,
treatment, economy and reuse; transport systems that favor the transport of masses with
quality and safety; actions that preserve and expand green areas and use of clean and
renewable energies; finally, transparent and public administration shared with organized
civil society.
At a time when global warming problems can lead to planetary catastrophe, every city
has to have a climate change adaptation plan, especially those that are affected by
extreme events. Coastal cities such as Salvador, for example, should have planning
against the predictable rise of the level of the oceans, should worry about landslides on
slopes, floods, etc. resulting from the inclement rain. In short, it should have flexibility
and adaptability to the new climate requirements. It is necessary to redesign the urban
growth of Salvador in order to integrate it with the natural environment, to recover its
beaches and its rivers now very committed with the launch of sewers, so that the city
does not receive a hostile response of the natural environment.
The rulers of Salvador should revitalize the old center of the city with the recovery of
the properties in a state of ruin and their places to become peaceful and comfortable
living spaces for its inhabitants, provide all the places with good urban infrastructure
compatible with the needs of its population and promote the formation and maintenance
of self-sufficient neighborhoods in commerce and services to avoid the disorderly urban
expansion of its territory. They should give priority to the densification and urban
development within the built spaces and to the recovery of degraded environments.
Areas of risk unduly occupied by low-income populations should be redeveloped or,
where this is not possible, to promote the relocation of their inhabitants with the
construction of new housing units. They are all big projects that require huge resources
that create activities that generate employment, income and well-being for the
population.
The economic, social and environmental problems of Salvador result from the fact that
the city's rulers do not think of all the parts related to the development of Salvador in a
systemic way, encompassing economic, social and environmental aspects, as well as
regional development, also contemplating their relationship with the Metropolitan
Region of Salvador and the dynamic areas of the State of Bahia. The main emphasis of
the rulers of Salvador has been to carry out works on a point basis dissociated from an

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integrated development plan of the city. Meanwhile, Salvador faces deficits in housing
units for low-income and in urban and community facilities, irrationality in means of
transportation, lack of adequate public services to meet the needs of the population,
inefficient use and waste of water and energy, in addition to not treating waste and not
reusing water, and of recycled and recyclable materials. Salvador is therefore far from
meeting the requirements as a sustainable city. This reality must be profoundly
modified.
*Fernando Alcoforado, 78, membro da Academia Baiana de Educação e da Academia Brasileira Rotária
de Letras – Seção da Bahia, engenheiro e doutor em Planejamento Territorial e Desenvolvimento
Regional pela Universidade de Barcelona, professor universitário e consultor nas áreas de planejamento
estratégico, planejamento empresarial, planejamento regional e planejamento de sistemas energéticos, é
autor dos livros Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável-
Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do
Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática
Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas,
Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016) e A Invenção de um novo
Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017).