The stream restoration in urban areas is a recent approach in Brazil, although in developed countries it has been applied since the 1970´s. Drenurbs Program, apply in Belo Horizonte, although is one of the first initiatives to restore urban streams in Brazil, has already practical results. This paper aims to propose discussions about the effectiveness of current urban streams restoration initiatives in Belo Horizonte, based on the social perception of the results of interventions in the Baleares creek, in the northern portion of the city. For this purpose, a survey was carried out to evaluate the relationship between the actors involved in the restoration process, the opinion and the social satisfaction about the project. The results demonstrated that the restoration interventions were well accepted by the population and, despite of the fact that there is almost none interaction between the actors, these results provide good prospects for the implementation of similar projects in other urban watersheds. However, the results also showed that the preference for the traditional model of cover the stream and built a sanitary way is still relevant. Due to the innovative nature of these initiatives for restoration of streams in Brazil, the results may help future projects and programs related to interventions in urban areas.
Social perception; Stream restoration; Urban watershed; Drenurbs
