Trajectory and praxis of environmental planning in the paulista macrometropolis and climate change: a case study on the environmental zoning instrument

Abstract

The research fits into the thematic of environmental planning as a subfield of territorial planning. The theory of social fields has been used to understand theory production and planning practices. Similarly, the Planning System and Culture Approach (PSCA) has been used to understand how particular theories, policies, procedures, and associated values have been applied in specific contexts. In Brazil, environmental planning, on the one hand, is influenced by the technicist approach of comprehensive planning theory and, on the other, has an interface with social activism and civil society participation. Another aspect is the dynamics of the natural system that affect and are affected by the planning system and practices, such as climate change as a driving force for tension. Among the various interfaces between field and subfield, environmental zoning is one of the most consolidated and traditional instruments present in the National Environment Policy with multilevel character and technobureaucratic trajectory. Using this theoretical-methodological framework and the territorial outline of the Paulista Macrometropolis (MMP), contextualized in the Global South, the research explores the trajectory and praxis of environmental planning in MMP in a scenario of great socio-environmental transformations. The methodological steps begin with the international discussions on environmental planning against the field (or subfield) theories and the social and environmental challenges cited. It then characterizes the trajectory and praxis of environmental planning in MMP from the perspective of the planning system and culture and considering the social and environmental stresses, and finally discusses the issues of the field and subfield to discuss the results achieved in the case studied. an inductive-deductive dialogue. The hypothesis is that climate change is changing theories, methods, techniques and values of environmental planning and through the PSCA it will be possible to grasp this trajectory and identify aspects of the context of the MMP and the socio-environmental challenges of the Global South. (AU)