Proposal of wetlands as a Nature-Based Solution for emergency situations: the case of Vila Gênesis, Campinas

Abstract

Faced with the contradiction between the right to housing and the right to the environment, forms of immediate and emergency provision of populations are prioritized, such as supplying the demand not met by the state regarding the housing and sanitation deficit, including the protection of the river system. Due to the precariousness of the sanitary infrastructure in urban peripheral areas, characterized by socio-spatial and environmental weaknesses, the case study of the Vila Genesis sector, Campinas, was chosen, where there is a community occupying an area defined as environmental protection, bordering the Anhumas Stream. The article presents the investigation of sewage treatment through the phytoremediation process by wetlands or filter gardens as a Nature-Based Solution (NbS), seeking to avoid contamination, with easy installation and maintenance techniques, with potential for landscape quality, in the territorial cut established, which suffers from the precariousness of housing and lack of infrastructure, pouring sewage directly into the stream. The methodology consists of the investigation of bibliographical and documentary references on sanitation in Brazil and São Paulo and of phytoremediation techniques by wetlands or filter gardens, to carry out installation tests in the case study, through cartographic and aerial photogrammetric survey. The theoretical studies and urban-territorial data and legal frameworks surveyed pointed to the deficit in sewage sanitation, whose unfolding corroborates the importance of these systems to meet the need in communities characterized by socio-spatial and environmental weaknesses. The results achieved present an implementation trial of French wetlands system as a decentralized effluent treatment process for the case study, whose scope points to the possibility of replicability in similar situations.