ERASE AND FORGET Rivers and landscapes as cultural memory of Fortaleza, Brazil

Abstract

Territories have been gradually altered during the processes that characterize Brazilian urban development. We are especially concerned about bodies of water that commonly suffers constant aggressions overtime in order to be erased and not recognized as part of the city. Removed from the landscape, they are also lost in collective memories. Therefore, the present work aims to reflect about urban processes that significantly alter cities and endanger the environmental and cultural balance that gives so much meaning to the existence of cities themselves. The research focus on the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, analysing one of the aspects of its urban evolution: the presence of watercourses, from 1945 cartography,correlating it with current satellite photos. The analysis shows the way in which rivers and creeks are considered in the thinking logic of development in recent decades, making observations about the risk of erasing the city's water resources from the local collective memory.

Keywords: urban evolution, territorial studies, watercourses, Fortaleza.