The Tietê Floodplain: environmental restoration, urbanization and technological innovation

Abstract

The critical social and environmental conditions on the outskirts of São Paulo are the reference of ZL Vórtice, a collaborative project focused on the urbanization, environmental recovery, and technological innovation of the Jardim Helena district, known as Pantanal. The project proposes to develop, with the participation of the local community, new drainage and paving solutions, sustainable water treatment devices and restoration of degraded areas, new technologies for the containment of ponds and streams banks, and social monitoring devices for the river system and urban settlement. ZL Vórtice intends to introduce an important differential in public policies for metropolitan peripheries, particularly the floodplain areas: the agency of research laboratories to develop technologies and specific materials for critical situations. The question of method is fundamental when different research laboratories come together to face critical situations such as the Tietê River floodplain, in cooperation with local communities. Transdisciplinary projects, in which each agent has its requirements and procedures, establish major methodological challenges. The aim is to give the proposals an experimental character, focused on technological innovation, including knowledge transfer and technical training of residents to face increasingly recurrent extreme events in the floodplain areas.