Decision Making and Geodesign: A Collaborative Territorial Planning Proposal for the Metropolitan Region of Belem, Para, Brazil

This paper is the result of a case study based on the geodesign proposal (Steinitz 2012) adapted to the metropolitan reality of Belem, Para, Brazil. Composed of seven municipalities and with about 1.7 million inhabitants, this metropolitan region is the second most populous in the Brazilian Amazon. Paradoxically, even in the midst of high rainfall, a dense hydrographic network and an abundance of water resources, Belem shows significant vulnerability in terms of the quality and quantity of water accessed by its population. According to the Sanitation Panel, 39.8% of the population in the Metropolitan Region of Belem (MRB), does not have access to drinking water (Brasil 2018). In turn, 90.1% do not have sewage collection and treatment, further aggravating the water crisis, socioeconomic and health inequality. This reality requires more effective urban planning with regard to the vulnerabilities presented. In this scenario, geodesign represented an interesting methodological approach, primarily for highlighting the importance of the water issue in Belem and also for sketching propositional scenarios, in a collaborative way and based on Geographic Information System (GIS).