Development of Piped Gas Service in São Paulo, Brazil (1900–2000) and its’ Growth in 21st Century through the Hierarchical Analysis of Urban Indicators

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of piped gas in the city of São Paulo (Brazil) since its implementation in 1900 until its expansion in 2000. After this, are worked 27 urban indicators represented by four groups of study: quality of life, urban planning, consumption projection and costs of civil construction. These indicators are applied in a group of 24 districts using the analytic hierarchy process. This methodology intends to show urban parameters that determine the decision making to choose the most attractive neighborhoods to receive the service. By comparing " pair to pair" basis of this method, is possible to define the attractiveness ranking of the gas service deployment in these 24 districts, thus indicating those which, by their urban characteristics, are the most propitious to the use of channeled gas. The conclusion is that parameters that are not usually evaluated as quality of life and urban planning are crucial in market analysis of the implantation of the natural gas network. Among them are: land uses and family income can influence the network expansion more than common factors as consumption issues such as population density and density built.