Percepção Ambiental dos moradores das margens do arroio Pilão de Pedra em Ponta Grossa-PR

Abstract

The question at the core of this paper is understanding the environmental perception of the people who live on the banks of the Pilão de Pedrastream, which is located within the urban area of Ponta Grossa – PR. The surveys are supported by the fieldwork with qualitative interviews (18), photographical records, and survey notepad. We discuss the development of studies on Environmental Perception within the context of establishment of a subfield in geographical science in the second half of the 20th century, the Humanistic Geography. This paper was developed within the epistemological precepts of Humanistic Geographic, in the line of studies about Environmental Perception of phenomenological basis, in order to understand how the local residents perceive the world which they experience, constituting their conscious place of living. Thus, we discuss the Pilão de Pedrastream in the context of the urban growth of the city of Ponta Grossa, and how the residents of the banks of the stream perceive themselves in that space-temporality. Based on the interviews, we established categories for understanding the environmental perception of the residents, pondering that the residents of the banks of the Pilão de Pedrastream perceive the environment in different ways: the “invisibility” of the stream for some people comes from the interpretation of a weak influence on their daily experiences in the world; the environment is perceived in a spatial context as an advantageous location for accessing services available downtown, valuing the walking distance; the environment is described as calm, peaceful, with good interpersonal relationships, and without urban infrastructure due to the perceived lack of public services. Finally, the stream is viewed as a manifestation of bad smell, among other negative aspects interpreted as consequences of urbanization.