Potencial de expansão urbana e conservação ambiental: análise de sínteses de interesse na bacia de vargem das flores, Contagem - Minas Gerais

Abstract

The Vargem das Flores basin in the municipality of Contagem/MG has been the scene of intense conflicts of different origins, including conflicts related to land use and divergent policies regarding land use planning and environmental protection, since the area is protected by the typology of EPA. Conflicts related to occupation and land use have their origin related to the irregularity of occupations that are distributed throughout the basin, while conflicts of political origin that add to the existing ones arise from the clash between metropolitan interests and municipal interests in Vargem das Flores. Downstream of the basin is a dam for the formation of the Vargem das Flores reservoir, which is part of the Integrated Supply System of the Paraopeba basin, managed by COPASA. After the publication of Contagem's master plan in 2018, many questions arose, as the policy that gives guidelines on the zoning of the municipality extinguished the rural zone and rezoned part of the area as an urban expansion zone, allowing the presence of urban occupations in the area. The change in the master plan rejected the proposals of the Macrozoning of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, a metropolitan management instrument that placed the area of interest to the metropolis due to the presence of the reservoir. The validity of municipal interests over metropolitan interests placed the remaining green areas, water courses and drainage channels at risk due to the possibility of urban expansion in the area. In this context, the present study sought to map the possibility of reconciling urban expansion and environmental conservation in Vargem das Flores and to identify possible conflicts of interest in the basin. We used the multicriteria analysis method by weights of evidence to build three syntheses: urban expansion and environmental conservation; and the integration synthesis, modeled on the two previous syntheses. After building the syntheses, manual adjustments were made to the integration synthesis in order to identify land use skills based on the master plan, resulting in a deeper mapping that sought to meet the needs identified in the territory. The integration synthesis revealed that the proposed zoning in 2018 puts at risk the natural resources that are fundamental for the reservoir's existence and extrapolated the areas that showed interest in urban expansion. The aptitude synthesis adapted to the plan presented an alternative that reconciles the conflicting interests and highlighted the need to develop policies for greater verticalization aimed at the local situation of the basin.