Paisagem e ambiente na cidade pequena: percepção de moradores e visitantes em municípios do interior do Rio Grande do Sul.

Abstract

The investigation deals with the user's perception regarding the evaluative image in small cities, identifying the particularities of this environment from the perception of local residents and visitors. The motivation of the study is to understand which characteristics of these cities are perceived as attractive by the people who live or visit these places. If there are features that attract and please different users, it would be interesting to search for ways to identify and make them maintainable in the landscape. There are no known studies of evaluative image of small cities from the point of view of residents and visitors, specifically in cities in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul. The main objective of this study is to identify the physical and symbolic characteristics that influence the evaluative image of the small city, based on the environmental perception of local residents and visitors. The methodological procedures used are based on the area of Environment Behavior Relations and studies conducted on Environmental Perception. The research is of applied nature and it is classified as exploratory, with qualitative and quantitative approaches. The type of research is a case study which investigates two places ‒ Nova Palma and Silveira Martins, cities located in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. File and field surveys were used during the investigation. The field survey was carried out through observations, photographic records and sequential analysis of urban environments. The collection of evaluative data was accomplished through the application of mental maps and questionnaires. As performance measures, pleasantness, general satisfaction and satisfaction with physical and symbolic environmental characteristics were used, divided into five groups of aspects. Overall, visitors are more satisfied with the urban environment of the small cities than local residents, even though the latter are also satisfied. As for pleasantness, visitors also rate the environment more positively than local residents. It was concluded that the characteristics of the physical environment and the associative characteristics influence the evaluation of the quality of the small town environment. However, the type of influence varies for different user groups, with some characteristics having stronger influences for one group and other characteristics for another group. Natural landscape elements have been found to please both residents and visitors and contribute greatly to legibility and strong image formation, as some function as visual landmarks in the landscape. The study contributes to the state of the art regarding environmental perception in small cities, with the differential of addressing the perceptions of different user groups and can provide theoretical support for urban planning guidelines in these cities.