Heritage Territory at Risk

representational application for reterritorialization: a case study in Aracruz, Espírito Santo

Abstract

Inserted within the thematic triad of territory, patrimony and representation, this article addresses the application of a representational methodology for the identification, classification, and valorization of local territorial patrimony, carried out using cartographies of territorial morphotypes – environmental, rural, urban, and settlement. Therefore, the theoretical-methodological basis is grounded in the Italian Territorialist School (ITS), which understands territory as patrimony, subject to risks amidst transformations. The current period reveals a widespread deterritorialization in the municipality of Aracruz/ES, marked by territorial transformations that detract from local characteristics, placing the territory-heritage at risk. With regard of this problem, the article objective develop an Atlas of Territorial Patrimony – a method for analyzing and recognizing local territorial heritage, mediating reterritorialization – and specifically: (i) apply a morphotypological representational methodology to the territory of Aracruz; (ii) interpret association between human settlements and the environment; (iii) recognize invariants and rules of territorial transformation; and (iv) address territorial planning and design actions oriented at a reterritorialization of the municipality of Aracruz. The result is a morphotypological understanding of the territory, based on the identification of territorial heritage, guiding a reterritorialization, that is, a patrimonialization.