Complexity of improvement

The Riachuelo river in Buenos Aires was considered one of the most polluted watersheds in the world, where industries, sewers and illegal dumping have contaminated the river for over 200 years. Over 8 million people live in the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, many of which live in informal settlements without official waste management, sanitation- or water systems. A rehabilitation project along the riverbanks started in 2006 and a 35-meter strip of the riverbank is turning into a 4.5 km long park along the north side of Riachuelo. This has led to complex consequences such as the relocation of families in informal settlements. Landscape architecture has an obligation to consider effects in a long-term holistic perspective and the aim of this work is to analyse and evaluate the sustainability of the park along Riachuelo within the rehabilitation project, with a focus on marginalized areas, to give a long-term holistic perspective of the project. The method used in this research is based on travelling transect, with pre-travel research, fieldwork on-site and a post-travel where the material was assembled. To evaluate the sustainability of the park, Ekologigruppen’s manual was used with indicators for social, economic and ecological sustainability. The research suggests that the new construction of the park has improved some sustainability aspects but is still insufficient. There has been a neglect of ecological sustainability in the planning of the park which affects both the social and economic dimensions of sustainability and therefore the park cannot be considered to uphold requirements for sustainable development