Revista Sociedade & Natureza (May 2005)
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON SANTA EULÁLIA SMALL FARM, SÃO LUÍS-MA, BRAZIL
Abstract
The small farm Santa Eulália occupies a privileged area in the landscape compositionof the city of São Luis, being situated in one of the vectors of urban expansion, the edges ofthe avenue Euclides Figueiredo, on the northwest of the island of Maranhão, next to thecenter. In the decade of 1980, the small farm was inserted in area of permanent environmentprotection and in the beginning of the decade of 1990, Santa Eulália received great landscapealteration for interest in creating the housing development Santa Eulália for an estimatedpopulation of 35 thousand inhabitants. The intervention was made aiming to organize thegrowth of the city, however the execution of the work generated a great controversy, as muchpolitical as environmental, but also social, with the argument that the area destined to theimplantation of the housing development would be of permanent preservation and placed onthe side of a garbage deposit that served as a deposit of solid residues for all the cities of theisland. After the deforestation of 107.32 hectares and the implantation of the primaryinfrastructure in the place that involved services of embankment, drainage and pavement, thework was seized by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable NaturalResources (IBAMA), but the main environmental impacts had already occurred or wasoccurring. Due to the land filling, embankment, previous cut of palm trees and mangrove,some foci of erosion with the creation of several gullies had originated and had a consequentsanding of creeks due to the material carried by the rain, besides that, the exposed soil is poorand with lateritic concretions . These factors made it difficult to attempt the forest resetting ofthe area in study. Therefore, the recovery of all the area becomes necessary in order to leaveit with a profile similar to the original, mainly in the areas considered untouchable for theBrazilian environmental legislation.
