The Rivers, the City and the Map as Object of Landscape Dynamics Analysis

Abstract

Historical cartography has been increasingly important in understanding the landscape transformations, especially in the urban environment where different historical records are used. The present work aims at identifying and comparing, from historical and current records, the changes occurred in the three main rivers that cut the genesis area of the city of Petrópolis (Quitandinha, Palatino and Piabanha). The main research material consists of the Koeler Map (1846), a document that guides the urban planning of the city of Petrópolis, which was designed in line with the drainage network, produced in a 1: 5,000 scale and the most recent cartographic base of the city (1999) in scale 1: 10,000. The georeferencing and vectorization of the Koeler Map made it possible to perform different measurements, such as river width and winding. Later, the same procedures were performed on the most recent cartographic base of the city, in order to create comparative parameters for changes in the course of the rivers and their floods. The results show the suppression of four river islands and a decrease of sinuosity of the rivers with a variation of +0.575% to -2.436%. In the Quitandinha river were recorded the biggest changes and the largest flood record (97%), indicating that changes in the drainage network are significant elements in understanding flood dynamics.

Flood dynamics: A geoecological approach using historical cartography and giscience in the city of petrópolis (Βrazil)

“…These were a 965 m 2 island in the Quitandinha Basin, another in the Palatino Basin (210 m 2 ) and a third island in the Piabanha Basin (187 m 2 ). Santos et al (2019) found slightly different values for the size of the islands, as they used a different georeferencing interpolator and 72% fewer points. Despite this difference, the results are similar.…”

“…In the projections drawn in the Koeler Map (1846), the straight segmentation of the three main rivers that cross the city was proposed as a way of facilitating urban development. The rivers Piabanha, Palatino and Quitandinha have undergone changes in their courses, such as a decrease in sinuosity (Santos et al, 2019). Other notable modifications included the excavation and removal of three river islands in the drainage basins.…”

A Geoinformação na Pesquisa em Geografia no Contexto do PPGG/UFRJ

“…Mais especificamente, em relação à pesquisa sobre Cartografia histórica, iniciada em meados de 2001, como um projeto sobre a Cartografia Histórica do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, esta se tornou um extenso projeto, com quase 21 anos de estudos e análises sobre a sua formação territorial, divisões administrativas sob o aspecto diacrônico e análise de sua toponímia histórica em vários níveis de feições geográficas (MENEZES, 2022). Desta forma foram impulsionadas outras pesquisas sobre toponímia (SANTOS, 2008;MENEZES, et al, 2021b), o papel da Cartografia Histórica no entendimento da dinâmica da paisagem (SANTOS et al, 2019), e consequentemente, como elemento de análises geoecológicas (FERNANDES et al, 2020).…”