Open spaces of ecological relevance in municipal urban law: transformations in medium-sized cities

Abstract

: A landmark of the new national urban policy, Federal Law 10.257/2001 – the City Statute – challenged urban law with the need to incorporate the social function of the city and urban property in municipal master plans. In addition to the implementation of the new urban development instruments, it was necessary to review and make public policies and urban legislation compatible with environmental legislation requirements. Thus, by incorporating the sustainability guidelines of the National Urban Development Plan, municipal legislation had to face development paradigms, emerging themes in the 21st century. Traditional urbanistic instruments have shown their inefficiency in the implementation and effectiveness of instruments aimed at securing ecologically relevant open spaces, whether permeable, vegetated, occupation-sensitive, circulation or leisure and coexistence spaces such as squares and parks, especially in medium-sized cities, where urban spaces are still in great demand for consolidation and expansion. In this context that this work aims to analyze the transformation of the system of open spaces of ecological relevance in the municipality of Chapecó from changes in urban legislation, from the urban model proposed by its 2004 Master Plan for Territorial Development and its revisions of the years 2006, 2010 and the Master Plan of Chapecó of the year 2014. The method uses documentary and cartographic analysis, as well as mapping through the Geographic Information
Systems environment with the use of free software QGIS. Structured in typologies of public property, transitional and restricted use, in this study, the ecologically relevant ELs highlighted are the Special Areas of Environmental Interest (AEIAs), Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs), Green Areas and and Conservation Units. The results presented highlighted the role of urban policy in structuring and promoting a connected and multifunctional open space system. It is considered that the theme of ecological relevance as a system, integrated and co-dependent, should be addressed in the National Policy of Urban Development, incorporating the multifunctionality and connectivity as fundamental factors for the fulfillment of the social function of property and the sustainable city.