Participação em Rede: um estudo de interfaces virtuais como instrumento de participação popular no planejamento urbano

Abstract

The certainty that popular participation is indispensable to urban planning and management implicate an urgency for aligned actions to this presupposition. Aspect emphasized in crisis periods, such as the pandemic, in which urban resilience policies plays a critical role. In order to achieve that, the deepening in urban planning methods as ways to enable popular participation is a necessity to policies and strategies aiming to improve urban habitat conditions in contemporary cities. The impact of COVID-19 population life and behavior demanded adaptations and innovations, often technological, in a global scale. In this scenario, the question raised by this study is how is it possible to create tools that allow public participation in times of social distancing, and that may also amplify the reach of participation to the population in general? The active collaboration of citizens in urban planning besides assure the legitimacy and success of the actions, contributes to consolidate more autonomous communities, and therefore, more democratic. Considering this, is essential that professionals are prepared to an interdisciplinary work, studying methods -here referred as interfaces- that include participation. Several approaches of urban planning have participation as a key factor, throughout virtual technology. Contemporary examples are noticeable in various cities around the world, particularly the ones that have the Health Cities Movement as a model. This study set out to investigate the adaptation for virtual means of popular participation interfaces in urban planning processes, aiming to facilitate participation in a pandemic context, and add to the advance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into promoting healthier and resilient cities. Analysis was based on exploratory research, adopting a qualitative approach. Data were collected from several studies and reports, case studies and, finally, the experiment of a prototype for a virtual participation platform.