Recovery of Scenic Beauty of a Lake in Urban Park from Environmental Diagnosis and Implantation of Mitigating Measures

Abstract

The city of S?o Paulo, state of S?o Paulo/Brazil, with about 12 million inhabitants is considered the largest city in Latin America. Just as in other large metropolises it is devoid of green areas, in this way it is of great socio-environmental importance of the preservation and maintenance of parks and green areas of the municipality. The Fernando Costa Park, known as the Parque da água Branca, is an urban park located in the central region of the Municipality of S?o Paulo, and has more than 79 thousand m 2 of green area, in a total area of 137 thousand m 2 . Two lakes, populated predominantly with carp, are inserted in the Park, and are important components of the urban landscape and the patrimony of the city, present landscape function (scenic beauty) and are used to contemplate the environment and leisure of the population. The lakes due to the intense eutrophication process with uncontrolled growth of the phytoplankton presented blue-green coloration, with formations of lumps and foams, low transparency, bad smell and unpleasant visual aspect impairing the visitation of this place. In the first stage of the present research, an environmental diagnosis was carried out and the second stage involved elaboration and implementation of mitigating measures aiming at its restoration. The recovery proposal included the implementation of Artificial Floating Islands (IFAs) aiming at pollution control. After 60 days, it was possible to observe the efficiency of the Eichhornia crassipes populated islands showing that the methodology of phytoremediation was efficient in controlling the eutrophication of urban lakes, guaranteeing the recovery and conservation of the scenic beauty of these places.