Abstract
Natural systems undergo processes, flows, and rhythms that differ from those of urban sociocultural systems. While the former takes place over eras or many generations, the latter may occur within years or even months. Natural systems change includes no principle of intentional progress or enhancement of complexity. In contrast, sociocultural systems change occurs through inherited characteristics, learning, and cultural transmission [1]. Both are dynamic, heterogeneous, and vulnerable to regime shifts, and are inextricably linked. The interrelations among natural and anthropogenic factors affecting sustainability vary spatially and temporally. This paper focuses on landscape changes along the Carioca River valley in Rio de Janeiro, located in the Brazilian Neotropical Southeastern Region, and its implications for local urban sustainability. The study incorporates a transdisciplinary approach that integrates landscape ecology and urban morphology methodologies to gauge landscape change and assess social-ecological systems dynamics. The methodology includes a variety of landscape change assessments; including on-site landscape ecological, landscape morphology, biological and urbanistic surveys, to gauge urban watershed quality. It presents an adapted inventory for assessment of urban tropical rivers, Neotropical Urban Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (NUSVAP), and correlates the level of stream and rainforest integrity to local urban environmental patterns and processes. How can urban regional land managers, planners and communities work together to promote shifts toward more desirable configurations and processes? An understanding of the transient behavior of social-ecological systems and how they respond to change and disturbance is fundamental to building appropriate management strategies and fostering resilience, regenerative capacity, and sustainable development in urban watersheds. The sociocultural patterns, processes and dynamics of Rio’s hillsides suggest that increasing the multifunctionality, flexibility, adaptability and connectivity of open spaces may influence carrying, adaptive and regenerative capacities of urban landscape systems.
Highlights
Conflicts between urban growth, landscape protection and sustainable development have been the subject of discussion worldwide since the late 1980s
The environmental systems and social clusters targeted for assessment are located in the edge of the rainforest protected by the Tijuca National Park and include: rainforest fragments, a cluster of favelas (Guararapes, Vila Candido and Cerro-Cora communities), and a high-income residential area
Samples were collected at representative reaches of the Carioca at three gauge stations at Tijuca National Park reach (TP), Favela Guararapes reach (FP), and Largo do Boticário reach (LB)
Summary
Landscape protection and sustainable development have been the subject of discussion worldwide since the late 1980s. Real estate and land use pressures on urban rainforest and water bodies are incessant, especially within the Tijuca Massif where the 39 square kilometer Tijuca National Park (TNP) one of the largest protected rainforest urban parks in the world is located. The Carioca River is located within the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro (“Rio”) limits, in the Neotropical Southeastern Region of Brazil (see Figure 1). Processes of landscape change along the river reflect transformations that occurred throughout the Tijuca Massif, as well as larger landscape evolution of the city of Rio de Janeiro, all of which are linked to Brazilian and international conjunctures at the time the events took place. As with other valleys throughout the city, the Carioca
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