Amsterdam's unique urban plan, developed in response to flooding, features an extensive canal system that promotes both transportation and defensive needs since the 16th century. The city's 2025 mobility plan focuses on reducing car usage while enhancing cycling and public transport, categorizing streets to improve accessibility and safety. Currently, Amsterdam ranks as the 5th most sustainable city globally, actively pursuing initiatives to optimize energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, despite facing challenges in air quality.

1. 1
AMSTERDAM: EXAMPLE OF CITY PLANNED
Fernando Alcoforado *
Amsterdam only exists because it is planned. The city was built around the river
Amsted, which cuts the Netherlands from east to west. To avoid the flood of
Amsterdam, and the rest of the country, the Dutch decided to find a solution that is a
system of channels. The canal system in Amsterdam is the result of successful urban
planning with the execution of hydraulic engineering works with defensive and
transport purposes since the city expanded during the 16th century. The Amsterdam
area was characterized by a soggy soil and sandy that needed to be drained for the land
to be occupied. With the removal of water, the soil became compacted and the height of
the city was lowered relative to the river. In this way, Amsterdam fell below both the
Amsted river and the sea. Hence the ancient need for planning and works of hydraulic
engineering, which has been in existence since the mid-17th century, according to
Natália Garcia, a journalist and promoter of the City for People, formulated by the
Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl in an article under the title Amsterdã:
planejar é a regra, fluidez é a sensação (Amsterdam: planning is the rule, fluency is the
sensation) available on the website <http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/25343-
amsterda-planejar-e-a-regra-fluidez-e-a-sensacao/>.
It should be noted that Holland was a country with a privileged geographic location to
transport products by the sea in the Middle Ages. This was the golden age of Holland in
the mid-17th century, when it was the world's largest economic powerhouse. It was at
this time that a network of circular canals was built in Amsterdam that had the function
of having the water circulate through secure networks to the Amsted River, avoiding
floods, and creating an architectural legacy. The canals of Amsterdam make up one of
the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Amsterdam is a city with buildings of more
than 300 years.
In Amsterdam, public space is cleverly planned. The lateral cut from side to side of a
street or avenue has several lanes, such as sidewalk, bicycle lane, bus lane, tram track,
rail track and car track. Whoever is walking always has a small “island” between each
of these tracks to be safe when crossing the street. Amsterdam, a city of 850,000
inhabitants in an area of 3.5 km², has been at the forefront of urban planning for a long
time. It should be noted that after World War II, Amsterdam suffered the impact of
automobiles as well as other cities in the world. Policies were adopted to encourage the
use of the automobile as the construction of ring road and the occupation of the public
space and the old sidewalks with vacancies for vehicles.
Among the reasons for bicycle culture are the flat terrain of the city (and the country as
a whole) and the freedom of traffic, since the road rules are considered more as
suggestions than as rules themselves. Cyclists in Amsterdam do not wear a helmet,
considering the bike a mere extension of pedaling. The fact that many people ride
bicycles generates a virtuous circle because more cyclists in the streets generate more
safety for other cyclists, and drivers who are also cyclists, with greater caution in the
direction. Today 27% of the trips in the city are carried out by bicycle, increasing to
50% in the central region of Amsterdam.

2. 2
The Amsterdam 2025 mobility plan was drawn up jointly by the city's transport,
housing and environment secretariats. Instead of creating more streets for more cars to
get around or a larger public transportation network, the plan sought to categorize
existing streets, according to their function as follows: 1) Residential streets: do not
have space for public transportation, only allow the entry of cars and motorcycles from
those who live there. They have free movement of bicycles and pedestrians; 2) Small
shopping streets: they are made to be walked on foot, but can have public
transportation. The sidewalks are wide and there is no parking for cars that, in most
cases, cannot even circulate in these streets; 3) Commercial streets with a lot of traffic:
shopping areas with large car circulation, street parking, but without public transport
and sometimes without bike lanes; 4) Wide arterial avenues linking neighborhoods and
important areas. They are expressways that do not have public transportation, only
bicycle lanes; and, 5) Inter-municipal highways: they have small and large vehicles.
They connect the city to the neighboring counties.
Having established these classifications, it is clear to the town hall how it should act to
prevent the growth of car use, improve the public transport network, and increase the
number of walking and cycling trips. Today the modal split of the city is: 36% of trips
are made by public transport, 33% are by car, 27% by bicycles and 4% by foot. To
discourage the use of private vehicles, the solution was to reduce the number of parking
lots on the streets and increase taxation, both in the purchase of cars and fuels. To
control traffic, the major arterial avenues linking neighborhoods will have their
infrastructure improved to concentrate the entire flow of cars. So the cars will always
pass through them, never through the smaller streets. There will be no major
investments in more sidewalks or even bike paths.
Only new stretches of peripheral bicycle paths are planned until 2025. The subway will
also gain a new line, which will cross the city from north to south. The "tram" network
will also be expanded. This network is intended primarily to facilitate the lives of
people in out-of-center districts, but need access to the central area. Parking in the city
center will virtually cease to exist and will be concentrated in peripheral areas so that
the city center is free of congestion. The worst thing you can do for a city is to let the
cars move freely, because they take up more and more space. This measure will be
combined with the attempt to develop urban comforts in the outskirts of the city, with
the creation of schools, shopping centers and services. In addition to facilitating
displacements, it is sought to prevent some of them from happening and to make people
live close to work.
To evaluate urban organization and sustainability, The Economist magazine, in
partnership with Siemens, conducted a survey to identify the greenest cities in Europe
(http://www.oecocidades.com/2011/08/23/em-copenhague-93-vivem-satisfeitos-com-a-
cidade/). The 30 most politically or economically significant urban centers on the
continent were analyzed, classified according to 8 performance categories: carbon
dioxide emission, water consumption and waste, land and waste management, energy
consumption and use of renewable sources, air quality, mobility and environmental
policies. All data were collected by The Economist's team of researchers who also used
the European Union's environmental targets for the year 2020 as a benchmark for
scoring. In this ranking, Amsterdam is the 5th most sustainable city in the world.

3. 3
In terms of water and waste and land management, Amsterdam came first, but its weak
point is the emission of carbon dioxide. 6.7 tons of CO2 per capita are released each
year, a mark that is much higher than the other cities analyzed, which emit an average of
5 tons. Despite being known for its remarkable bicycle fleet, transport is largely
responsible for emissions, with the industry and heating system also contributing to the
problem. Its main sources of energy are fossils (gas, coal and oil), but 6% of it comes
from renewable sources. Amsterdam has one of the most efficient heating networks in
Europe, where heat is obtained from the conversion of biomass waste to gas.
At present, the Amsterdam Smart City project, which started in 2009
(http://www.cidadessustentaveis.org.br/boas-praticas/amsterda-uma-cidade-inteligente)
is underway. Various actions have been taken to create a more sustainable and energy-
efficient city. These actions were subdivided into four categories: housing, mobility,
work and public spaces. Its objectives are as follows: 1) Housing: aims to provide
energy for 8000 homes with renewable energy, mainly through wind generation; 2)
Mobility: in addition to projects with a preference for cycling and low carbon public
transport, there is a project for distributed allocation of electric car supply stations
throughout the city, in order to prioritize the use of electric energy to fossil fuel motor
vehicles in the city; 3) Work: aims to promote activities in a community way to induce a
routine of collaborative consumption; and, 4) Public spaces: Intelligent School in which
elementary school children learn to save energy in a scheme of interschool competition
in energy efficiency. In the Climate Street project, the city street has the role of
incubator and testing space for innovations and climate experiments, in order to share
the advances with the city in a direct way.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 77, member of the Bahian Academy of Education and the Brazilian Academy of
Letters of Rotary - Bahia Section, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development
by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning,
business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of the books
Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um
Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os Condicionantes de Desenvolvimento do
Estado da Bahia (PhD Thesis, University of Barcelona, http: //www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944,
2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento da
Bahia 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). Possui blog na Internet
(http://fernando.alcoforado.zip.net). E-mail: falcoforado@uol.com.br.