Urban Expansion and Green Urbanism in an Amazonian Metropolis: The Production of Urbanized Nature in the Metropolitan Region of Belem

Abstract

In the recent dynamics of the production of the metropolitan space in Belem, there was a trend of continuous dispersion of the urban fabric of its Metropolitan Region, characterized by two temporally distinct processes in the production of the urban and environmental landscape. On the one hand, a progressive loss of vegetation covers in the central neighborhoods and in the municipalities that make up the metropolitan region, due to the unequal forms of production of the urban space. On the other hand, a recent attempt makes up for urban and environmental policies via the creation of a set of conservation units in the metropolitan space by different political spheres. Based on this observation and using the concept of urbanized nature, this paper presents evidence of the implementation of a set of policies and practices that enabled the production of a new urban spatiality, this time operating on a metropolitan scale and using the environmental issue as a way of structuring the metropolitan area of Belem around a particular type of green urbanism. In terms of research methods, we opted for a comparative methodology between different historical and geographic periods of urban formation, with an emphasis on documentary checking and analysis of satellite images and historical iconography.