Cadê o rio que estava aqui? Uma análise do encapsulamento do Rio das Pedras no bairro do Imbuí, na cidade de Salvador (BA).

Abstract

This dissertation outlined reflections and discussions regarding the encapsulation system in “Rio das Pedras” (Salvador/Bahia), while implementing new urban infrastructure and public facilities, as well as offsets analysis of its resulting socialenvironmental impacts. Throughout human history, the course of rivers and streams have been fundamental, not to mention determinant, for the settlement and development of many cities along its’ margins. Afterall, they allowed the exploitation of several services and activities essential for human settlement, such water provision, regulation, support and even cultural. The accelerated and often disordered occupation of cities changed over time the relationship with their urban rivers and, therefore, it began to play a secondary importance in urban dynamics, when associated with its’ incremental nature, for instance by sanitary disposal or recurrent floods in the rainy season. Over the last few years, the City of Salvador has implemented a series of urban interventions to the detriment of its river’s perennial flows, among which the improvement of Imbuí neighborhood stands out, for the implementation of urban infrastructure through the encapsulation system in the “Rio das Pedras”. Considering this scenario, the objective is to identify and analyze socio-environmental impacts resulting from the encapsulation process of the Rio das Pedras for the implementation of urban infrastructure and public equipment. The methodology was developed with bibliographic research, in addition to the application of direct observation and the collection of secondary data. The research showed that the encapsulation system of “Rio das Pedras” has been partially fulfilled its original role of resolving the flood recurrent and better structuring the road network in the Imbuí neighborhood, but it hasn’t in anyway contributed to bring about the irreversible changes to its stream system, bringing with it a series environmental consequences and, most of all, the rupture of its relationship with the urban dynamics