O crescimento da população em cidades vem aumentando ao longo das décadas, e com isso a preocupação com a arquitetura, com a qualidade de vida e com a natureza. A natureza presente nas metrópoles são os espaços verdes urbanos: os parques, praças e jardins, os quais possuem funções ecológicas, sociais e estéticas fundamentais para o bem-estar da população. Analisar a percepção ambiental dos habitantes das cidades é importante para compreensão das funções que esses espaços exercem sobre metrópoles. É sob esse enfoque que o presente estudo objetivou levantar a percepção ambiental de frequentadores do Parque Mário Pimenta Camargo, também chamado de Parque do Povo, localizado em São Paulo. Para o levantamento de dados, foram entrevistados 100 frequentadores que estavam utilizando o parque. Os resultados apontam que a percepção dos entrevistados sobre a qualidade da infraestrutura do espaço do parque do povo é boa. Dentre a infraestrutura bem percebida e utilizada destacam-se desde as áreas verdes, playground, aparelhos de ginastica até infraestrutura como banheiros e bebedouros. O local não possui estacionamento, aspecto considerado como negativo pelos entrevistados. Conclui-se que o parque do Povo é percebido e utilizado pela população de forma a atender as suas expectativas.

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Green areas and ecosystem services are emerging issues in the management of public areas with a view to promoting healthy and sustainable cities. The aim of this study is to establish and test an Index of Ecosystem Services for Green Areas (Índice de Serviços Ecossistêmicos para Áreas Verdes - ISEAV) to evaluate ecosystem services in urban parks as a technical subsidy for the management of urban green areas. The composition of the Index was based on quantitative indicators selected from a bibliographic review. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the Index, two parks of São Paulo city were selected - Buenos Aires Park and José Emérito Brás Park - and also primary and secondary data were used. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposition and application of this Index in two parks of São Paulo, where it was possible to obtain a diversified range of ecosystem services considered relevant for the health of the population.

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The focus of this study was to investigate the wide use of Eucalyptus spp., an exotic plant with high allelopathic ability, in the reforestation programs of urban parks in São Paulo City, Brazil, over the last century. To understand the implications of using Eucalyptus spp. in the city’s parks, this study aimed to compare nutrient cycling and litter decomposition between a mixed composition of litter (i.e., native and exotic species) and the litter of a single species (i.e., Eucalyptus). To accomplish this, newly deciduous leaves were collected from two native and two exotic species that are commonly used in the afforestation of São Paulo as well as from Eucalyptus spp. The mixed composition of litter yielded a higher dry mass loss and return of macro- and micronutrients to the forest floor. The decomposition constant (k) values were 0.00322 and 0.00207 g g−1 day−1 for the mixed composition and Eucalyptus spp., respectively. The time required for decomposition of 50 and 95% of deciduous material was 215 and 931 days, respectively, and for the mixed litterfall 334 and 1449 days, respectively, for Eucalyptus spp. Therefore, the mixed litter exhibited greater dry mass loss and nutrient cycling in an urban forest of São Paulo City, since dry mass losses as well as speed and amount of nutrients returned to the forest floor were relatively higher compared to Eucalyptus spp. Nutrient cycling via Eucalyptus spp. litter was less efficient than mixed composition of litter, demonstrating that reforestation programs carried out in the twentieth century using only one species may have had little success. The results of this work emphasize the fact that in urban reforestation programs the City of São Paulo must consider the environmental and biogeographic characteristics of the species employed and use high levels of biodiversity, since the city lies in a megadiverse biome.