Environmental Perception Of The Population And The Quality On The Urban Afforestation: A Comparison Between Two Neighborhoods Of Bauru, São Paulo

Abstract

In order to obtain an efficient planning of urban trees one must consider the perception of the population in order to bring to the citizens a sense of ownership and responsibility of these places; since the maintenance will not be carried out only by the public power, but also by the population. The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental perception of the population of the Santa Luzia and Araruna districts on urban afforestation and verify the relation with the local tree quality. for this, 300 structured questionnaires were applied, 150 in each district, in order to characterize them and evaluate their perceptions regarding the afforestation of the place. With the assistance of the Municipal Department of the Environment, the characterization of the parks and squares of the districts was carried out, as well as a quantitative survey of trees on the sidewalks. It was found that the Santa Luzia has 44% more trees than the Araruna, and more parks e square. The species most found in the two districts was Oiti (Licania tomanetosa (Benth.) Fritsch). Shade was the most cited benefit in Santa Luzia (72.7%) and Araruna (74.7%). In Jardim Araruna, 28% of the residents do not plan to plant seedlings (even without a tree on the sidewalk), compared to 16% in Santa Luzia, which allowed to verify that only the positive perception regarding the afforestation are not enough to trigger actions in the urban afforestation.