Dr Richard Nunes awarded FAPESP funding

Dr Richard Nunes, Lecturer in Real Estate and Planning, together with colleagues in Brazil, has successfully obtained funding from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) to investigate Mental Health, Violence and Urban Global Environmental Change in the Export Corridor Tamoios in Brazil.

The project recognises the increasing consolidation and expansion of major highways in the state of São Paulo, which has accompanied intense processes of urbanization, industrialization, tourism development and population dynamics. These processes contribute to an accumulation of localized changes that impact on natural systems globally, which in turn accelerate the effects of climate change on cities.

Set within the framework of ‘urban global environmental change’, the research seeks to uncover the combined effects of these urban and environmental systems of change on the state of mental health and incidences of violence among urban communities, and to examine the extent of institutional intervention and community-based adaptation in these areas. The study combines statistical data analysis and focus-group interviews in an investigation of ten municipalities along an axis composed of three highways – Tamoios (SP-99), Carvalho Pinto/Ayrton Senna (SP 070) and D. Pedro I (SP 65) – which service the North Coast and Bragança Paulista regions. The research project is led by Dr. Sonia Seixas, Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais – Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Richard is co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Joao Hoeffel, Center on Sustainability and Cultural Studies, Atibaia College. Other collaborators include Dr David Botterill, Senior Research Fellow; Oxford Brookes University, Business School (UK); Dr Nicholoas Georgantzis, University of Reading (UK); Prof Thomas Safford, University of New Hampshire (USA); Prof Cristiane Suarez, Universidade Sao Francisco (Brazil); and Prof Jansle Vieira Rocha, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil).