Case Study of Urban Resilience—Brazilian River: City-Scale, Common Problems, and Collective Cooperation Solutions

Abstract

The inconsistencies of urbanization have generated scenarios of environmental degradation that are not limited to a particular region in the world; countless cities have “turned their backs” on their rivers, both literally and figuratively, creating tangible and intangible barriers in interrelationships with water. The literature points to successful cases in the path of renaturation of rivers, but in Brazil (and by extension in Latin America), urban problems related to water persist, and many solutions seem to be stalled in the outdated. Although technical engineering solutions are known on a large scale, and rivers’ environmental, social, and cultural values for societies are increasingly discussed, difficulties in searching for resilience remain. This article points out three major problems generated by the lack of urban environmental planning that is frequent in the Brazilian context, which are (a) floods, inundations, and landslides—phenomena directly related to the occupation of environmentally vulnerable territory; (b) health crisis associated with pollution of water bodies and lack of sanitation; and finally, (c) water shortage—understood the drought events and reduced water supply. The approach of the river as a protagonist of urban and social formation at different scales of the city, with a critical and analytical perspective on the subject, is based on the analysis of three Brazilian cities located in the Atlantic Forest: (I) São Paulo- SP, a megalopolis that suffers from the degradation of water sources associated with insufficient housing policies to meet the demands; (II) Curitiba-PR, the metropolis and ecological capital of Brazil that shelters from its source (the mouth of the Belém River), which has the highest rate of water pollution in the city; and finally, (III) Blumenau-SC, a small city considered as a hub of the Middle Valley of the River Itajaí and nationally known for natural disaster events. The study, of an exploratory nature, sought empirical support based on the discussion that notes similar problems with different forms of reaction. The discussion inferred the cultural factor of cooperation as a key to developing resilience. The case of Blumenau-SC stands out among the three cities analyzed for its greater ease in developing collective skills, with a population that collaborates towards a common objective in constructing a resilient municipality. Finally, the discussion of resilience with the ability to face problems in two different worlds is added: that of cumulative crises and that of post-disaster. The investigation of strategies for articulating different stakeholders and their different interests in the search for a common objective in the governance of urban waters at different scales of cities is identified as a relevant topic for further research.