Instituição e permanência de áreas verdes urbanas: o legado do PLANDURB em Salvador, Bahia (1975-1985)

Abstract

The city of Salvador, since its foundation in 1549, brings with it legacies of Renaissance landscaping of the fortress city, backyards, orchards, vegetable gardens, cloisters, gardens, the acropolis of “Baía de Todos-os-Santos”, as determinants for the condition of salubrity, sociability of the modernized city of the nineteenth century. With the idealization of the civilized city and the nation state, urban landscaping reflects according to the ideals of modern urbanism, in sanitarism, hygienism, salubrism, progressivism, culturalism, naturalism, as inheritances of the Urban Cultural Landscape. The landscape is an indicator of the processes of anthropization of the environment and a tool for analysis pertinent to the spatial dynamics at the interface nature-society. Observing the landscape from the viewpoint of green areas inspires creativity and urbanity, and constitutes an important indicator of urban health, being more sensitive and vulnerable than people, condition, however, insufficient as a guarantee of its permanence, which requires effective public actions. This study brings as a question the limits and possibilities of the institution of a system of urban green areas, as well as the planning instruments, in guaranteeing its permanence. The general objective was to elucidate how the urban green areas exercise their social function in the quality of life in the contemporary city, seeking to historize the process of suppression, permanence and preservation of the Green Areas of Salvador. The focus is on the Study of Green Areas and Open Spaces elaborated by the Central Planning Body (OCEPLAN) of the Municipality of Salvador da Bahia, and its subsequent incorporation into the Master Plan of Systemic Urban Development - PLANDURB (1975-1985), outlining its consequent institutional derivations today. Relying on an extensive inventory that comprised the Green Areas System of the Municipality of Salvador (Law 2.549/73) and a legal corollary for preservation of this system, it is observed that different contexts will impact the results obtained. The thesis develops a landscape-historical narrative, outlined by the analysis of the urban landscape and by mappings of the instituted areas, based on primary sources (documents, testimonials, iconography), on secondary data from existing studies, as well as on the author's experiences in the analyzed context. Throughout the analysis process, it demonstrates the effectiveness of the institution of the instruments that guarantee the permanence of the urban green areas, however, they are permanently threatened by speculative interests, with successive subtractions exercised in their delimitations and afforestation, recognizing the parks as the main reserve of resistance.