Conflitos e potencialidades da arborização viária em uma Área de Especial Interesse Peatonal (AEIP) em São Carlos - SP

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sidewalks are free open spaces, essential for walking, meeting and leisure in cities that have been losing ground in the last decades to motor vehicles. The walkability understands the need not only for spatial conditions, but also for the aesthetics of the landscape, safety, mixed uses of land and comfort that benefit for pedestrians. Urban afforestation plays an important role in improving the microclimate of streets and improving the urban landscape. The present work investigated and analyzed the conflicts and potentialities for the implantation of the urban afforestation system, discussing its interaction with the walkability. For this purpose, an Area of Special Pedestrian Interest (ASPI) in São Carlos – SP was chosen, where afforestation implementation criteria were used in accordance with the municipality's Master Plan for Afforestation in view of the infrastructure elements. With the data obtained, a map was built with the help of the AutoCad software and then imported into QGIS, where geoprocessing operations such as buffers were used, for the minimum distances analysis, unions, subtractions and intersections. The studied blocks had, on average 75% of the extension of its sidewalks tailored to some infrastructure and 35% of the trees are in conflict with some built infrastructure. Conflicts were verified even in lots with large sets of sidewalks, highlighting the challenge of planning and designing urban spaces that return spaces to urban afforestation. Curb cuts for vehicle access to parking and signposts, together, account for 64% of the occurrences of conflicts with trees. A potential for planting trees along an extension of up to 759.16 m of sidewalk with and without curb lowering was identified, which is equivalent to 28.91% of the total curb extension of the blocks. The choice of an ASPI proved pertinent, as the results indicate that the main challenges to be overcome for the implementation of urban afforestation involve the reconfiguration of the urban space in order to guarantee the prioritization of pedestrians and the consequent improvement in walking conditions.