Comparative assessment of sustainability strategies applied to urban neighbourhoods in Brazil, Germany and Sweden

Cities can be recognized as a fundamental system to promote sustainable development, balancing social, environmental and economic aspects, and developing features of adaptation or resilience.Batty (2008, p.5) defines cities as systems composed by "sets of elements or components tied together through sets of interactions … around land use activities".In the last years, sustainability criteria and system's approach have become more relevant in urban development, once the efficiency and the level of services could be enhanced while lowering environmental and social impacts, and related costs.