Urban fabric in the city system. Consolidation of patterns and trends

• Grant number: 25/01221-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: Jeferson Cristiano Tavares
• Grantee: Naiara Nunes Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/01583-9 - Recent transformations in the urban fabric of Brazilian cities: perspectives for formulating public policies in city systems, AP.PNGP.PI

Abstract

In the context of increasingly frequent extreme events related to climate change, this research project aims to understand how the transformation process of the urban fabric in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre (RMPA) relates to climate change. To this end, the objects of analysis are defined as the city of Porto Alegre-RS, its metropolitan integration within the RMPA, and the disasters resulting from the extreme events of May 2024. The central question is to understand how the urbanization process in this area relates to extreme events, what its particularities are, what patterns emerge, and what vulnerabilities exist in the face of climate change. This research is based on the recognition of an increasingly regionalized national urbanization process. Therefore, it relies on a research method that seeks to navigate between the regional dimension of infrastructure and the local dimension of impacts. To achieve this, the study is grounded in the conceptual debate on the city-region, guiding the discussion on the inseparability of these dynamics. The urban fabric will be approached through the theoretical aspect of urban sprawl, and the analyses will focus on the role of infrastructure in urban vulnerabilities. As an exploratory study at the master's level, the research aims to build a hypothesis based on the analysis of primary and secondary sources, using the debate between urban form, city systems, and climate change as a reference. The analyses will be focused on the past 30 years, a period in which planning actions have already been conditioned by the new institutional framework established after 1988, integrated into the 1988 Federal Constitution, as well as the new inter-federative organization. However, historical aspects of the city's and RMPA's formation will not be overlooked. The central argument is that it is possible to identify relationships between the transformation of city systems and the intensification of impacts resulting from extreme events. With this, the study aims to identify patterns and trends in the territorial development of the RMPA and provide critiques and perspectives regarding climate change-related risks.