As in many industrialized cities, São Paulo’s Tiete River is heavily polluted after generations of poor planning, bad infrastructure, and irresponsible industrial activities. In the course of decades, the city turned its back on the river, using its riverbeds for highways, utilities and other infrastructure. With climate change, these unsustainable practices have resulted in critical failures in urban form and function as many areas, streets, and even highways routinely become flooded during the rainy season.

The Arco Tiete plan reimagines the waterway as the clean, attractive natural amenity it once was. Such restoration would improve not only the ecological environment, but also spur new patterns of economic growth and add to the quality of life of city inhabitants. By restoring the river to its natural state, the plan seeks to bring new life to the city with waterfront parks and development that humanize the built environment, reengaging it with nature. While recognizing the physical, social, economic, and environmental challenges, the plan imagines a resilient, more livable environment improving quality of life, mobility, equity and ecology. The framework builds upon existing strengths and features to create a city-wide green network, reconnecting the city with a system of greenways, paths, nature conservancies, parks and cultural spaces. Reappropriating sites that engage the natural green infrastructure rewinds past development mistakes with new landscapes, developments and features that filter or even contain watershed runoff to impact the health of the Tiete River. The green network in combination with enhanced key corridors reconnect the city and promote cultural change and more equitable development patterns. In short, the plan overlays multiple strategies including improved transportation roadways, a network of green infrastructure, trails, parks and reserves, and land use strategies that promote sustainable development, walkability, and housing affordability. The plan is organized to target the city in seven distinct zones, each with their own characteristics, issues and solutions. By recognizing the unique merits of each zone, investment can be distributed to key areas of the city to enhance and strengthen treasured public, historic, cultural, commercial or residential conditions. Along the river itself, major infrastructure changes are proposed to create green areas at the riverbanks. By either elevating or burying railways, freeways and electrical lines, human and environmental connections to the water are restored. Meanwhile the natural hydrology of the river can benefit from new wetlands that expand the river’s breadth while also providing filtration and biodiversity.

Plan led by Davin Hong at RTKL