Geodesign Applied to Propositional Scenarios of Medium and Long-Term Sustainable Projects for Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region, Brazil

Abstract

As the world has become more connected, the scale of cities would be no different. Thus, it became necessary to expand the solutions to meet the planning expectations related to the urban environment in response to contemporary challenges. At the same time, the advent of new information and communication technologies, combined with the popularization of mobile devices, created opportunities to increase the involvement of ordinary citizens in activities of geolocalized data generation and maintenance - Volunteered Geographic Information. Parallel to this scenario of collective data generation, Geodesign framework emerges to support decision making, based on the generation of critical awareness and the co-creation of ideas. In this context, this article reports the experience of a methodological experiment developed in the scope of the project “Geodesign Brazil: Trees for Metropolitan Regions” through the case study of Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region, in which workshops were held using the collaborative and digital platforms GISColab and Vicon SAGA. For four weeks a group of collaborators gathered into virtual meeting platforms to apply Geodesign methodological procedures, performed into the following steps: (1) analyzing and enriching the local knowledge base with geolocalized annotations; (2) propose projects considering non-adopter, early adopter, and late adopter scenarios for 2035 and 2050; (3) evaluate their impacts over the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The study showed that inclusive and democratic methodologies supported by platforms encourage discussion, and support decisions on the importance of conscious urban and environmental planning.