Sarapuí River (RJ): Environmental Dynamics and Land Use (19th–21st Centuries)
Urban Rivers; Environmental; Baixada Fluminense; Urbanization of Rio de Janeiro; Environmental Degradation.
This dissertation was developed with the aim of understanding the environmental changes that have occurred along the territory drained by the Sarapuí River. The study addresses the transformation processes of the aforementioned river and its dynamics, from the 19th century to the first quartile of the 21st century. In order to cover a broad time frame, this work was divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, we address the theoretical field of environmental history, providing a brief retrospective on the origin of this field of knowledge and the importance of this methodology for studies related to the environment. In the second chapter, we address the research on the transformations that have occurred along the Sarapuí River, from the 19th century, to the engineering disciplines that profoundly modified the morphology of the river in the first half of the 20th century. Finally, we conclude with a research analyzing the environmental management processes of the river and its main effects on the population, such as recurrent floods that affect, above all, the most vulnerable populations.