Reflections on the “cities of Salvador” based on the field experience in the Salvador Urban Environment Quality Project - QUALISalvador

Abstract

The QUALISalvador (Qualidade do Ambiente Urbano de Salvador) Project had the general objective of producing and disseminating knowledge about the urban-environmental reality of the city of Salvador on an intra-urban scale. The research involved all 160 residential neighborhoods in Salvador, in which questionnaires with 62 questions were applied covering five dimensions - physical-environmental, socioeconomic, services and infrastructure, culture and citizenship, and well-being - whose results were able to support the formulation and implementation of public policies, scientific, audiovisual and technical work, in addition to providing the necessary conditions for the population and researchers to reflect on the quality of the urban environment in the capital of Salvador. Given the wealth of field experience provided during the data collection stages, including the analysis of the responses to the questionnaire as well as informal conversations and sensitivities when stepping into such diverse territories, considering the plurality of their own unique realities, the need arose to reflect more deeply on the “cities of Salvador” (Carvalho; Pereira, 2008), experienced and felt by the researcher throughout the aforementioned research.