A framework to classify and assess the perceived impact of small-scale initiatives in vulnerable Brazilian communities

Humanity is already experiencing the severe effects of climate change and resource depletion, which demands urgent action to make cities more resilient and sustainable. Currently, vulnerable populations are the most affected by these effects. In this context, a series of initiatives has been developed and implemented to transform cities worldwide through small-scale interventions that aim to address these challenges. Such interventions are at the local level, consider strong community engagement, and aim to achieve radical change. In this study, we work with the concept of Small-Scale Resilient and Sustainable Transformation Initiatives (SRSTIs), suitable for socio-environmentally vulnerable communities in Brazilian municipalities, and propose a framework to classify and assess its perceived impact. The framework is intended to support the early stages of implementing SRSTIs at the neighbourhood scale. To classify the initiatives, we first investigated and systematized as many SRSTIs as possible worldwide, gathering them in a “General Menu.” To develop and test the proposed artifact, we carried out an empirical study in the community of Morro da Cruz, a neighbourhood in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Analysing the results of the empirical study, we found that, in general terms, the economic vulnerability of the community plays a decisive role in determining the level of interest of dwellers in potential initiatives, since they have to deal with basic economic issues before thinking about other dimensions of sustainability, especially the environment. Thus, we conclude that, to foster sustainability and resilience in vulnerable communities, environmental concerns must be part of a strategy that integrates the confrontation of environmental issues with the economic, social, and cultural dimensions of sustainability. As an expansion of the activities developed throughout the research, we proposed and designed a tool in the form of a website to centralize information about dispersed initiatives in the city of Porto Alegre.