IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 37

Settlement System (SABREN)7 of the Instituto Pereira
Passos, the same organization that contributed with the
city's spatial data for the development of the Solar Map,
provides a view of the favelas, gathering identification
data on the communities, census data and other information, collating them with geolocation data and maps.
The exclusion situation denounced by the Solar Map
ends up unveiling a network of other exclusions. Just
like the tip of an iceberg, the shaded areas make visible
the historic basis, in which poor areas are not treated
with the same status and formality as other areas of the
city. Favelas are expelled and/or precariously treated
from an urbanistic point of view. Their buildings do not
have the status of formal housing. Most dwellings have
no property registration, and there is usually no information in government databases.
Including poor areas would require more complexity
from the point of view of refining the roof mapping
methodology, as already mentioned regarding the possibility of developing a more inclusive methodology [18].
In addition, it is unlikely that there would be any commercial counterpart to the supply, as these areas do not
usually, in the usual conception of investors, occupy
spaces of interest for investor activities due to the questionable stigmatization of the favelas as poor and insecure areas. This happens due to the absence of the
state as a guarantor of rights, either by the presence of
parallel leaders such as drug dealers or the militias
(paramilitary groups).
7
Available: http://pcrj.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=
4df92f92f1ef4d21aa77892acb358540. [Accessed: May 26, 2019].

Solar energy, as an alternative
source, has great potential for
exploitation in Rio de Janeiro.

In practical terms, there was no sun in Rio's favelas
according to the Solar Map of Rio de Janeiro, in none of
them indeed. Obeying the euphemism of the legend
proposed by the Map itself, favela areas were delimited
as areas of inconsiderable photovoltaic solar potential.
In the panoramic view of the city through this Map, the
favelas appeared demarcated in negative. In a figurebackground scheme, the favelas were revealed by their
lack, by shadows - Neighborhoods outside the favelas
in the sun and favelas in the gloom.
One of the most direct consequences for both Maps
and communities is that the application, which serves
as a portal for commercial initiatives, does not broaden
its outreach or facilities to the favelas, thus reinforcing
the typical lack of investment in these territories. By
excluding the favelas, the map is also excluded from
them, and it is no longer a tool to suggest or generate
investments in these areas, for example, proposed by
organizations such as Revolusolar and Insolar, which
promote the use of alternative energy sources in Rio's
favelas [19]. Such organizations and initiatives cannot
have in this Map an ally to arouse investor interest or to
seek funding for their projects on their own.

FIGURE 6. Areas of the favelas of Babilônia and Chapéu Mangueira exhibited in SABREN.

MARCH 2020

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020

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