The process of landscapes' fragmentation has led to having two realistic complementary options: (a) developing techniques and approaches for conserving the healthy remaining forest fragments and (b) restoring degraded places. The second option can be conducted by projects that focus on restoring or rehabilitating the degraded environment. In this research, a framework was tested through a set of pilot-scale projects in a highly urbanized Municipality of the southeastern Brazilian region (Sorocaba, São Paulo State). Four projects were carried out in order to test the efficacy of techniques devoted to solving different problems of environmental degradation (isolation of fragments, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and bioinvasion) in different environments (terrestrial [forested and nonforested] and aquatic [rivers]) through the acceleration and orientation of the process of restoration. Here, we show the main findings, discuss the potential and weaknesses found in each project, and offer some recommendations for future potential users. The projects are constituted of techniques and approaches that are all cheap, naturally based, and easy to be implemented and with a high probability of social comprehension and acceptance. In each project, we got interesting outcomes, considering all successes and limitations (for example, a high reappearance of vegetation in streams and strong control of soil erosion). This model embraces the main aspects of environmental recovering through a feasible, realistic, and socioecological approach, and it brings high potential to be used by other researchers and also for technicians and decision makers who search for feasible and realistic projects.
Faced with the anthropic activities of urban streams stretches through
rectification with concrete, there is a concern about the modifications
of the aquatic habitats and consequent ecological damages to the
ecosystems. Based on biophilic engineering, there is a great opportunity
to idealize and test interventions to revitalize such hampered
ecosystems. Hence, we verified the performance of biological and organic
factors, after the implementation of one-off interventions in three
rivers using biophilic handmade materials and structural elements in
their fixation. We carried out the project in urban stretches of
concrete bed streams, located in Sorocaba-SP, Southeast of Brazil. In
two years, we conducted biweekly in situ and laboratory measurements to
characterize the study sites, idealize, scale, implement the projects,
and, evaluate the ecological responses of the implementations. We
collected sampling in two points: upstream and downstream interventions.
We evaluated the performance of the interventions through the analysis
of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) factors and
by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We presented the results
through a decision-making matrix for stakeholders, which indicated that
our ideas are of low cost and easy to implement. Then, we got the
following scenario of SWOT priorities: opportunity (58.55%), strength
(24.71%), threat (10.74%), and weakness (6.00%). They demand constant
efforts for maintenances and they need adjustments to a better
understood by residents and the watershed management. We concluded that
the strengths observed in the project turn our idea replicable in any
part because it attaches the idea of caring about the environment
through biophilic techniques, and the weaknesses are liable to
modifications (improvements) in future projects that consider such
proposal.
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