Date of Completion

2017

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Environmental Department

Thesis Type

Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors, Environmental Studies Electronic Thesis

First Advisor

Brendan Fisher

Second Advisor

Amy Seidl

Third Advisor

Joshua Brown

Keywords

Rio de Janeiro, Summer Olympics, urban development, environmental sustainability, triple bottom-line, urban infrastructure

Abstract

The Summer Olympic Games take place every four years and captivate the attention of people all around the globe, with countries competing in various sporting events over the course of a month. The most recent spectacle took place in Rio de Janeiro, the first hosting location in both Brazilian and South American history. Ever since work began in late-2009 in preparation for the Games, the mega-sports event has been embroiled in controversy and critique, mainly centered on the financial woes of the Brazilian economy and apparent rushed construction that was done on the Olympic Park and Olympic Village. Eight months after the end of the Olympics Rio continues to receive extensive media coverage, with many questions remaining as to the future use of these different built infrastructures developed for the Olympics.

By assessing the legacies left by the Olympics through a triple bottom-line approach, judgments can be drawn as to how Rio de Janeiro has been affected since the conclusion of the Games. There certainly have been substantial economic, social, and environmental impacts caused by the large-scale construction that was needed to prepare Rio to host the 2016 Olympics, and many of these consequences are still yet to be fully determined. However, through copious interviews and on-the-ground research done in Rio, it is clear that the 2016 Olympic Games have left both encouragingly positive and starkly negative legacies on the city.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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