Serviços ecológicos de um rio de Floresta Atlântica: uma perspectiva social e ambiental

Abstract

The relationship between rivers and its surrounding population is very old. After quitting nomadic lifestyle humans wanted to settle in places close to aquatic resources. Aquatic systems represented the initial spot for many human civilizations. Rivers and populations started shearing their space generating a cyclic scenario in which cities invaded rivers and rivers invaded cities. Attempting to understand this process, the present study brings an analysis of the relationship between one river and the population inhabiting its border. Two different techniques for investigating the environmental perception of riverine residents were applied, as follow: questionary and mental map. Both techniques aimed to understand men’s expectancies, satisfactions and dissatisfactions, judgment and behavior with regard to the environment. Carangola River, that bequeathed its name to a city, nowadays has its border compressed by urbanization. The river has become back-border of terrains and waste carrier. The riverine population, that contributes a lot to the current critic scenario, nowadays feels threatened by the risk of inundations.