SOIL CONTAMINATION IN SÃO PAULO: THE CASE OF THE “URBAN OPERATION NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE TAMANDUATEÍ REGION”

Abstract

The City of São Paulo has been suffering with the scars caused by the fast industrial growth since decades. Considered as the city of progress and hope for a growing increase in labour demand, the city became an attractive destination for rural workers and immigrants, creating a steadily demand for housing, services and infrastructure.  Confronted with the need to expand the territory and to be able to house the quantity of workers that the city demands, it arises the need to improve its planning, without extending the urban area to virgin locations, which are very often bordered by protected areas or areas of risk. So, it is necessary to enhance the underutilized areas where infrastructure already exists. Therefore, it becomes extremely important the analysis of contaminated areas, since these sites are often located in already structured and well-located places, but lacking safeness for the population. Several academics and professionals have tried to understand the problems, difficulties and the possibility to reuse contaminated areas, resulting, as a consequence, an issue focused by the 2004 Master Plan, which proposed the “Operação Urbana Diagonal Sul” (Southern Diagonal Urban Operation), which progressed to the “Operação Urbana Moóca-Vila Carioca” (Moóca-Vila Carioca Urban Operation), currently known as “Operação Urbana Consorciada Bairros do Tamanduateí” (Co-associated Urban Operation Neighbourhoods of Tamanduateí River).