SENSIA – Procedimentos para avaliação sensorial de atributos climáticos e da paisagem: os sentidos da visão, tato, olfato e audição aplicados ao diagnóstico ambiental

Abstract

The establishment, permanence and reproduction of a species or population in a given environment is conditioned to some local limiting factors (Liebig's Law of the Minimum), and to the physical-chemical factors within the tolerance range of such species or population (Shelford's Law of Tolerance). Similarly, the more restrictive attributes present in a river basin shall be considered as determinants for the land use and occupation at an early stage. Interventions that would strengthen and improve the availability of initially more restrictive factors or attributes would guide land occupation in an increasingly constructive way, enabling more sustainable, balanced and biophilic relations between built and natural environments. The objective of this research was to develop a rapid, low-cost, efficient, easy to use and scientifically consistent procedure for the diagnosis and quantitative sensorial evaluation of a place and its surroundings landscape, with a view to correlate and make Agroecosystems (agriculture, livestock, forestry and natural ecosystems) and Engineering and Urbanism (infrastructures and urban planning) compatible. In different sampling points of the hydrographic basin or within an area of interest, the aspects of Climate and Bioclimatic Zones, Relief (Relief forms, Declivity, Guidance of Stones, Stones and Rocks, Erosion and Mass Movement), Biota (Flora, Fauna, Soil Coverage, Organic Matter, Odor and Soil Organisms) and Soil (Permeability, Compaction, Structure, Porosity, Color and Tonality, Mottled, Texture and Dry Consistency, Wet Consistency (Agroecosystems), Wet Consistency (Engineering and Urbanism), Plasticity, Tackiness, Disintegration and Dispersion) are evaluated and scored. As a final result, a semaphore numerical framework shows more or less restrictive attributes at each sampling point, composing the basin mosaic and bringing pre-project elements to the decision making process for land use and occupation. A "field notebook" or "field manual", the main product of the thesis, was written in a common language and is accessible to a diverse, technical and non-technical audience, explaining the procedures for the evaluation and score of the 27 attributes associated with the local Climate, Relief, Biota and Soil. Especially to the assessed attributes regarded as more restrictive, technical studies and evaluation by qualified professionals are necessary.