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 Belém 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.
Share and Cite:
dos Santos, T. (2020) Urban Expansion and Green Urbanism in an Amazonian Metropolis: The Production of Urbanized Nature in the Metropolitan Region of Belem.
Current Urban Studies,
8, 623-644. doi:
10.4236/cus.2020.84034.