A look about urban planning: administrative region of Presidente Prudente

• Grant number: 20/14322-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning - Fundamentals of Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Cristina Maria Perissinotto Baron
• Grantee: Sarah Lira Garrido
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project intends to analyze and evaluate the current situation of urban policy in the administrative region of Presidente Prudente, i.e., the legislation and policies that underpin urban planning and especially the Master Plans, made from the guidelines of the 1988 Constitution. Later, from a selected municipality in the region, more specific studies will be developed verifying issues such as the level of accessibility of the Master Plan, its configuration and construction process, whether it had effective participation of the population or not, and its condition after the first revision. Cartographies will also be prepared to facilitate the reading of the spatialization of these policies in the city. And, then, based on the information gathered, discussions on the effectiveness of these master plans may be carried out, going through issues such as at what level these policies have been at the service of the population in fact, and identifying the possible failures that keep sanitation, mobility and housing problems, even after so many years of public power efforts in their resolutions, through legislation and actions. The choice of a small city for further study, with up to approximately 50,000 inhabitants, rather than Presidente Prudente, the administrative center of the region, is due to the need and possibility of studying the planning situation on a small scale that allows a more accurate understanding and also studies on more complex scales at another time. In addition to the studies on planning issues within the region, the project proposes to make a brief comparison with the planning system in Portugal, which appears in a similar way and may bring new perspectives on the subject. Therefore, our main objective is to understand the panorama in which the Municipal Master Plans and their products were conducted, having as a spatial cutout the Administrative Region of Presidente Prudente and make the analysis of one of these plans. The methodology proposed has, besides the bibliographic review on the subject, two approaches, one quantitative on the 16 municipalities of the Presidente Prudente Administrative Region that have Master Plans and one qualitative on the study of one of these municipalities. The analysis of the results will be made by comparing data from the quantitative stage with each other in order to verify whether the Master Plans were carried out in a participatory manner and if they have the main elements listed in the recommendations for their elaboration. It will also be possible to have an overview of how the municipalities are structured, or not, to manage the plans prepared. The stage of study and analysis of a municipality, in turn, will make it possible to understand the relationship between Plan and Projects, or rather, between the institutional design of the urban policy. In this way, it will be possible to verify whether the Master Plan fulfills its social function. (AU)