Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the application of buffer zones as an urban landscape heritage management tool, using Rio de Janeiro as the main case study, in order to inform urban regulation around the sites inscribed as World Heritage Cultural Landscape and disclose its relevance to link urban planning, cultural heritage management and sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach encompasses: conceptual framework – contextualization of heritage protection theory, focusing on landscape protection and buffer zones; discussion: cross-national comparative overview of buffer zones conceptual framework on the international heritage protection policy; historical background and spatial analysis, through GIS mapping, of local heritage protection policy, tracing its evolution through time; examination of prospects and challenges of this management tool, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, based on previous international, local experiences on natural and cultural heritage protection; and gathering of strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management. Findings: Core heritage sites and their buffer zones are integrated elements and act together to protect landscape significance and dynamic integrity (DI). In Rio de Janeiro, beyond the function of a caution zone, other important functions of landscape heritage buffer zones are to guarantee spatial and social connections of the protected sites, as well as the visual relationship between them and other significant urban landscape features. Strategies for the implementation of buffer zones in local landscape management should address the articulation of landscape protection governance; the conservation of visual, functional and structural identity quality and legibility and the monitoring of DI. Research limitations/implications: The methodology approach adopted in this study may also benefit from and foster further investigations, which could include the elaboration of a landscape management plan and an impact assessment inventory, refining the scale of study to the level of local watersheds, and a deeper examination of the popular cultural imprints within the World Heritage property buffer zone. Practical implications: Strategies to the implementation of the Carioca Landscapes buffer zone include a gradation of protection and control of impacts according to the distance of the core sites (in the form of rings or layers). The buffer zone should help to preserve the character, significance, and DI of the protected sites and guarantee their spatial and social connections, as well as the visual and functional relationship between them and between other significant landscape features of the city. All those management strategies should be founded on the elaboration of a broad urban landscape management plan with the local society involvement. Social implications: In Rio de Janeiro’s specific case, bridging the vision of culture and nature as opposite poles and, transcending the social segregation through community involvement should certainly be among the main guiding principles to the application of buffer zones for supporting landscape sustainability. Therefore, the establishment of regulation criteria and parameters within the limits of the buffer zone must acknowledge that the (urban) landscape should carefully articulate the different social agent visions and local urban contexts. Originality/value: The main contribution of this paper is to gather different visions of the role of buffer zones and disclose possibilities of conciliation between theory and practice concerning landscape protection, arguing for gathering natural and cultural heritage policies into the urban planning processes. Harnessed together, the suggested buffer zone implementation strategies may provide a proactive approach to Rio’s urban landscape protection and contribute to foster landscape sustainability and resilience. Although based on a specific case study, the adopted methodological approach may be transferable, with some adjustments, to other World Heritage properties, especially those located in urban areas under development pressures.

Natural systems undergo processes, flows, and rhythms that differ from those of urban sociocultural systems. While the former takes place over eras or many generations, the latter may occur within years or even months. Natural systems change includes no principle of intentional progress or enhancement of complexity. In contrast, sociocultural systems change occurs through inherited characteristics, learning, and cultural transmission [1]. Both are dynamic, heterogeneous, and vulnerable to regime shifts, and are inextricably linked. The interrelations among natural and anthropogenic factors affecting sustainability vary spatially and temporally. This paper focuses on landscape changes along the Carioca River valley in Rio de Janeiro, located in the Brazilian Neotropical Southeastern Region, and its implications for local urban sustainability. The study incorporates a transdisciplinary approach that integrates landscape ecology and urban morphology methodologies to gauge landscape change and assess social-ecological systems dynamics. The methodology includes a variety of landscape change assessments; including on-site landscape ecological, landscape morphology, biological and urbanistic surveys, to gauge urban watershed quality. It presents an adapted inventory for assessment of urban tropical rivers, Neotropical Urban Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (NUSVAP), and correlates the level of stream and rainforest integrity to local urban environmental patterns and processes. How can urban regional land managers, planners and communities work together to promote shifts toward more desirable configurations and processes? An understanding of the transient behavior of social-ecological systems and how they respond to change and disturbance is fundamental to building appropriate management strategies and fostering resilience, regenerative capacity, and sustainable development in urban watersheds. The sociocultural patterns, processes and dynamics of Rio’s hillsides suggest that increasing the multifunctionality, flexibility, adaptability and connectivity of open spaces may influence carrying, adaptive and regenerative capacities of urban landscape systems.

Este artigo descreve a metodologia adotada para análise conjugada do uso do solo e da suscetibilidade a deslizamentos, indicando suas implicações na vulnerabilidade socioambiental no Alto da bacia do rio das Pedras, Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. A metodologia utilizada envolve o mapeamento e análise do uso do solo e cobertura vegetal, das características da ocupação, dos pontos de vulnerabilidade identificados em conjunto com a comunidade e a correspondência com o mapeamento de suscetibilidade realizado para o Maciço da Tijuca por Martinez (2014). Os resultados indicam uma grande porcentagem de áreas em categoria de suscetibilidade Média-Alta (17,33%) e Alta (33,32%), sugerindo o grau significativo de ameaça ao qual a população residente na bacia está exposta. Adicionalmente, fatores atuais e pretéritos, tais como: deterioração da cobertura vegetal, descarga de esgoto e lixo; ocupação de zonas de inundação, estrangulamento de leitos e margens, edificações construídas imediatamente a jusante das cicatrizes de deslizamentos e o direcionamento das redes domiciliares de águas pluviais e esgotos junto às fundações das edificações contribuem conjuntamente para aumentar a instabilidade das encostas. Análises conjugadas, associando as variáveis de caráter biofísico aos fatores antrópicos relacionados com a ocupação humana, podem contribuir para subsidiar o planejamento territorial em áreas montanhosas.

This article examines how social participation contributes to the conservation of two open spaces in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro—the Rocinha Ecological Park (PER) and the Nova Iguaçu Municipal Natural Park (PNMNI)—emphasising processes through which peripheral communities reappropriate the biocultural value of heritage. On the basis of the premise that public use is essential for reconciling conservation and sustainability, this study questions the prevailing dichotomy between nature and culture in heritage management. It employs a multimethod approach combining literature review, systematic direct observation, and document analysis of community and university outreach experiences. The empirical outputs are qualitative matrices (governance mechanisms, problems, and potentialities) that systematically label and categorise field data. These matrices are then analytically examined to understand governance mechanisms, value negotiation, collective outcomes and the production of resilience with respect to the two peripheral parks. Grounded in the concepts of biocultural heritage, living heritage, and cultural decentrality, this study proposes an integrated interpretation of nature and culture, challenging fragmented and elitist heritage frameworks. The findings reveal vulnerabilities the two open spaces share, such as the lack of governmental coordination and the symbolic exclusion of peripheral areas, while also highlighting the potential of local and academic networks in developing collaborative management models. It concludes that the resilience and sustainability of metropolitan landscapes depend not only on legal instruments but also on the recognition of socioenvironmental rights, the appreciation of local knowledge, and the adoption of shared governance models, within which the biocultural perspective emerges as a central strategy to foster spatial justice and strengthen collective identities.