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 composition of the city of São Luis, being situated in one of the vectors of urban expansion, the edges of the avenue Euclides Figueiredo, on the northwest of the island of Maranhão, next to the center. In the decade of 1980, the small farm was inserted in area of permanent environment protection and in the beginning of the decade of 1990, Santa Eulália received great landscape alteration for interest in creating the housing development Santa Eulália for an estimated population of 35 thousand inhabitants. The intervention was made aiming to organize the growth of the city, however the execution of the work generated a great controversy, as much political as environmental, but also social, with the argument that the area destined to the implantation of the housing development would be of permanent preservation and placed on the side of a garbage deposit that served as a deposit of solid residues for all the cities of the island. After the deforestation of 107.32 hectares and the implantation of the primary infrastructure in the place that involved services of embankment, drainage and pavement, the work was seized by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), but the main environmental impacts had already occurred or was occurring. 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 consequent sanding of creeks due to the material carried by the rain, besides that, the exposed soil is poor and with lateritic concretions . These factors made it difficult to attempt the forest resetting of the area in study. Therefore, the recovery of all the area becomes necessary in order to leave it with a profile similar to the original, mainly in the areas considered untouchable for the Brazilian environmental legislation.