No abstract

<p>Environmental quality in cities is linked to the way building and wooded spaces are related. The disorderly growth of the cities highlights the lack of planning that reconciles the harmonious coexistence between these two spaces. The consequence is that green areas are incompatible with adequate planting and maintenance criteria, resulting in damage to the population. In this sense, the objective of this project was to analyze the afforestation in Cajazeiras - PB and its impacts to the local community, having as object of research the public squares, pointing out the local effects that the squares observed provide to the physical equipment of this city. For this purpose, a simple afforestation guide was developed to assist in the collection and treatment of data obtained from field visits. The aspects observed in the squares were: quantization of the arboreal species; location between trees and in relation to urban equipment. The existence of conflicts between the trees and the urban components was verified: 72.2% have irregular distances of buildings; 39% do not meet the requirements of planting in sidewalk, 15.25% of this total are causing damages; Concerning trees near the electrical wiring, 33.33% cause interference in the electrical network. It was observed that out of the total of trees in the squares, 41.8% did not meet the minimum distance limit suggested. These results suggest that the planting of trees in the squares was carried out without criteria, and that due attention was not given to the damages that this fact might entail. In this sense, it seems clear that the importance of this work is to provide diagnosis of afforestation in the public squares of Cajazeiras, opening a discussion, mainly with the public administration, on the risks of unplanned afforestation</p>