GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE STUDY OF THE HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN OF MONJOLINHO STREAM, IN SÃO CARLOS CITY, SP

Abstract

This article presents a study about the relationship between rivers and cities, trying to identify logics and agents involved and the repercussions in the daily life of São Carlos City, a medium-sized town located in the countryside of São Paulo State. Based on the idea of a hydrographic basin as a territorial and project unit, the study seeks to explore possibilities of establishing green infrastructure in the hydrographic sub-basin of the Monjolinho Stream, from the context of that water supply network. The perspective emphasizes the relationship between green infrastructure and the promotion of sociability in a System of Open Spaces: a potential dialogue between natural and urban processes. The development of the article is split into 4 parts: the first deals with the history of urban occupation of the focused sub-basin, identifying values that guided the process of building  the urban form and the relationship between its watercourses and the city; the second part focuses the moment the insertion of socio-environmental issues began in the planning of the city during the first decade of 2000, indicating city’s production logics that diverged from the prevailing situation; the third part promotes an understanding about the potentialities of installing green infrastructure, aiming to evaluate different qualities of spaces; the fourth part presents the concluding considerations on the subject in focus.