Onde a paisagem fala: cartografias da paisagem urbana da Bacia do Rio Botas, Baixada Fluminense, RJ

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the landscape of the Rio Botas micro-basin, located in the Baixada Fluminense region, through the production and interpretation of thematic cartographies that reveal its main biophysical and sociocultural characteristics, with the purpose of formulating guidelines for landscape design focused on environmental regeneration and urban space improvement. The research articulates multiple layers of territorial information — such as watercourses, land use and occupation, remnant vegetation, urban infrastructure, and demographic data — organized through a hexagonal grid system, allowing for a precise and comparable analytical reading of the territory. The study also incorporates historical and geospatial surveys that reconstruct the original configuration of the region’s watercourses, using sources such as old topographic maps from the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro to highlight the transformations caused by successive, often silent interventions that profoundly altered the river’s path and, consequently, the local ecological and urban dynamics. This methodological approach seeks to integrate the main agents shaping the landscape: the residents, whose local knowledge and everyday practices represent transformative potential in the reconfiguration of urban space; the river itself, understood not merely as a hydrological resource but as a structuring and conciliatory element of public space, capable of restoring connections between the city and nature; and the local governance, which still shows signs of fragility in the face of the socioenvironmental complexity that defines this metropolitan area. Amidst maps, data, and narratives, an affective geography is also drawn — where the Rio Botas is no longer seen merely as a watercourse, but as a vital trace of memory, resistance, and possibility. By proposing a sensitive and critical territorial reading, this research contributes to the construction of a strategic landscape plan that values naturebased solutions and community protagonism, suggesting new paths for reconnecting the flows of water, the shapes of the city, and the living forces of everyday life in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro.