A bacia hidrográfica vivida: sujeitos e experiências na bacia do Rio Una, Bahia.

Abstract

This thesis proposes an investigation of the Una River Basin, located in Bahia, through the lived experiences of the people who inhabit it, aiming to understand how these situated experiences contribute to the construction of the concept of a lived basin. To achieve this goal, a fieldwork methodology was developed to reveal the experiential dimension of the hydrographic basin.This is a qualitative research grounded in phenomenology as its methodological approach. It investigates, describes, and interprets how the experience of place influences the construction of the concept in question. The methodological path was organized into six interconnected stages: construction of the theoretical framework, data collection, fieldwork, systematization of information, writing, and evaluation of results.One of the chapters presents fieldwork as an encounter between the researcher, subjects, places, and landscapes. The proposed methodology emphasizes attentive, ethical, and sensitive listening, enabling an understanding of the basin through its everyday lived experiences. In another chapter, we traverse the Una River Basin guided by the narratives of its inhabitants. This journey involved the participation of 180 people — both adults and children — whose contributions reveal the presence of geographicity in the naming of landforms, meteorological observations, the reading of water pathways, the organization of crops, and the collective memory of places. This process culminated in the development of a glossary of the lived basin — a translational effort to highlight the unique ways of explaining the lived world.In the final section, the focus shifts to children. Their words, drawings, and gestures reveal powerful ways of understanding space, especially rivers, which are portrayed as living characters in their stories. These expressions illustrate the strength of a geographic knowledge constructed through movement, attentive observation, and the freedom to imagine.In summary, the lived hydrographic basin is not limited to a physical delineation or an isolated element of nature. It is a web of experiences where everything is connected: rivers, winds, plants, soils, animals, people, memories, and meanings. The Lived Basin, by gathering multiple voices and worldviews, can enrich environmental analyses and strengthen decision-making processes. In this context, scientific knowledge can offer both support and scale to this lived wisdom, broadening the ways in which we read and interpret the world. Recognizing the basin as lived reaffirms that geographic knowledge is not confined to technique or concept: it is rooted in experience, in the body that inhabits, in the attentive listening to place, and in the ability to assign meaning to landscapes.