Relações entre espaço urbano e cursos d’água: conflitos e interações no Vale Do Rio Doce

Abstract

Throughout history, the interaction between cities and water courses has undergone significant changes, which culminated, together with the processes of industrialization and extensive urbanization, in a conflictual relationship. The research has as its empirical object of study the Vale do Rio Doce, a region of inestimable environmental, social and cultural wealth, in which the occupation of the territory, according to a logic of exploration and export of commodities, was responsible for intense socio-environmental degradations and for changes in the relationship between the cities and their main river, highlighting the distance. Through this occupation model, the river was seen as a mere resource to be exploited to obtain profits and as an obstacle to the expansion of cities. It is understood that the understanding of the multiple facets that permeate the production of the river space, is fundamental for the establishment of measures that aim to reconnect cities and river. Thus, the main objective of the work is to understand the impacts of the urbanization process on the relationship between urban and fluvial space, as well as its conflicts and interactions, through socioeconomic study, on a regional scale, and analysis of the urban fabric, on a scale place. The methodology involves studies on the theme and history of the region, evaluation of legislation, preparation of thematic maps, examination of photographs, survey of socioeconomic data, field visit and development of methodology for selecting relevant municipalities for further studies. For socioeconomic analysis, on a regional scale, techniques of geoprocessing and manual cartography were used, aiming at the production of thematic maps. In addition, for the analysis of the relationship between urban and river spaces, on a local scale, the method of Souza (2015) was adopted, through the approach of the way of insertion of river borders in the city, relating them with three categories of analysis, namely: soil permeability, social and economic sectors, and structure of the urban fabric. It was found that the municipalities that make up the region are extremely unequal, from a social and economic point of view, reflecting in different negative impacts on the fluvial space of the Valley. While in larger municipalities, one of the most relevant problems recorded was the extensive occupation and waterproofing of these spaces, in the smaller municipalities, the absence of legislation was shown to be worrying, which, added to the population decrease and the growth of cities towards opposite to the watercourse, can result in a situation of social and emotional distance. In addition, it was observed that the banks of the rivers that make up the main hydrographic network of the Valley, in general, are underprivileged in the middle of the urban fabric, by similar processes in all the municipalities analyzed, such as privatization, environmental degradation, physical and visual disarticulation , and inadequate treatment by the legislative apparatus. Unique processes were also identified, such as the interference of the railway network in connection with the river; absence of landscape articulation; and interference of Samarco's tailings sludge in daily life and in the processes of occupation of the river space. These conditions, added to the absence of free spaces for quality public use on the banks of the Vale do Rio Doce, prevent its recovery and appreciation as a socio-environmental heritage