Política ambiental e regulação urbana: cobertura vegetal e desigualdade socioambiental em Salvador

Abstract

The crisis in climate systems is a consequence of the construction of mistaken paths of the model of civilization development consolidated in modern society, a trajectory characterized by the relationship of conflict between society and nature. At the local level, the distribution pattern of urban vegetation cover plays an essential role in systemic interaction in the water and thermodynamic balance in cities, contributing to the regulation of the different intra-urban microclimatic conditions, in the face of the emerging global environmental crisis. The objective is to understand the implications of the urban-environmental policy that underpins urban regulation, in the expansion, maintenance and retraction of the intra-urban distribution of vegetation cover and, how this condition impacts on socio-environmental inequality in the city of Salvador in the period from 2004 to 2020 in addition to identifying and proposing a guiding parameter, an indicator of vegetation cover, that can contribute to the restructuring of the intraurban distribution of vegetation. The aim is to fill the gap in the creation of metrics for the intraurban distribution of vegetation, as a contribution to urban planning in addressing socioenvironmental inequality and the risks of climate disasters in urban space. The following research has a critical exploratory qualitative-quantitative case study approach. The methodology used involves the systematization of primary data in a GEE environment, allowing the spatio-temporal analysis of the interrelationship between the indicators of the Percentage of Vegetation Cover (PVC), the Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the Perception of Street Trees by the Population (PerARB), by neighborhood - the intersection between these referred databases reflects the way in which urban-environmental policy was established throughout the analyzed period. The research carried out reveals a significant disproportion in the intra-urban distribution pattern of vegetation cover, since 66% of all neighborhoods have PVC below 10%. When crossing data from the PVC and LST by neighborhood, in two study subperiods (2005/2012 and 2013/2020), it is identified that from the PVC level of 32% (limit point) the vegetation cover starts to contribute to the attenuation of temperatures. Only 12% of the total neighborhoods in the city (20 of 163) have a PVC value of 32% and, in almost all of them, they have an inadequate internal distribution. It is verified that the urban-environmental regulations analyzed deal generically with the protection of urban vegetation and do not incorporate in the instructions minimum parameters that can fully contribute to the delimitation of the quantity, quality and intra-urban distribution of vegetation cover. Therefore, urban-environmental public policies which incorporate urban regulation instruments within the scope of municipal management in the period from 2004 to 2020 in Salvador have implied the construction of distribution patterns of vegetation cover ending up institutionalizing its suppression. The development of diagnostics to identify the “limit point” allows the proposition of a parameter that guides intra-urban vegetation cover at multiple scales, proving to be an important instrument for urban environmental policy in the procedural restructuring and equitable maintenance of the quality of the environment and life in cities.