Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 HelioTMF.pdf: 10560216 bytes, checksum: 1a99eef40cb541fed743f852c8636a24 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-23 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Droughts surfaced in 1877 as a crucial problem for the birthing Brazilian nation. Engineers, who formed the country's technical and scientific elite, took it upon themselves to study, understand and fight the problem through planned actions of intervention on space. This work, based on proposals and discussions contained in engineering magazines and reports, aims to provide elements for the comprehension of how these systematized actions against droughts, in the Iate nineteenth and early twentieth century, contributed to spatial analysis and the formation of a (then-inexistent) regional and territorial planning discipline in Brazi!. Engineers, by taking up the position of masterminds in the country's modernization, guaranteed for themselves personal economic stability, social prestige and political power. By understanding nature, either as a resource to be exploited or an adversary to national progress, they contributed to the delimitation of the region now known as the Northeast. By seeking to understand the drought phenomenon, they created knowledge about the space they sought to intervene on; by constructing their projects amid political and economical difficulty, they changed the organizational structures of cities and country in the northeast. The proposals for a?udes (Iarge water reservoirs) allowed the fixation of population and the resistance against droughts; the roads - railroads and automotive roadways - connected the sert?o to the capitais and the coast, speeding up help to the affected populations during droughts and allowing the circulation of goods so as to strengthen the local economies in normal rimes. The adopted practices and techniques, adapted from foreign experience and developed through trial and improvement, were consolidated as an eminently spatial intervention course, even if a theoretical body of regional or territorial planning wasn't formed in Brazil. Regional Planning proper was first applied in the country in the Northeast itself, in the 1950s, based off an economical view of reality in order to achieve development. The engineer's work prior tothat date, however, cannot be dlsconsldered. It was proved that, despite facing financial and political hurdles, engineers had a profound commitment to the problem and intended to act systematically to transform the economical and social relations in the region, in order to be victorious in their struggle against droughts / As secas apresentaram-se, desde 1877, como um problema de solu??o imprescind?vel para a na??o brasileira em forma??o. Os engenheiros, que formavam a elite t?cnica e cient?fica do pa?s, tomaram para si a responsabilidade de estudar, compreender e combater o problema atrav?s de a??es planejadas de interven??o sobre o espa?o. Este trabalho se prop?e a, a partir das propostas e discuss?es expostas em revistas de engenharia e relat?rios, fornecer ind?cios para compreens?o do significado que as a??es sistematizadas contra os efeitos das estiagens nas ?ltimas d?cadas do s?culo XIX e primeiras do s?culo XX tiveram no sentido de indicar elementos para a an?lise do espa?o e para a forma??o de um (ent?o inexistente) corpo disciplinar de planejamento urbano e regional no Brasil. Os engenheiros, ao assumir o posto de mentores da moderniza??o do pa?s, garantiam para si mesmos estabilidade econ?mica pessoal, prest?gio social e poder pol?tico. Entendendo a natureza ora como um recurso a ser explorado, ora como empecilho para o progresso nacional, exploraram o territ?rio das secas, contribuindo com a pr?pria delimita??o da regi?o que hoje chamamos Nordeste. Procurando compreender o fen?meno das secas} acabaram por criar conhecimento sobre o espa?o sobre o qual pretendiam intervir; levando a cabo, em meio a dificuldades econ?micas e pol?ticas, seus projetos, modificaram a estrutura de organiza??o de cidades e campo no nordeste. As propostas de a?udes, por um lado, possibilitariam a fixa??o da popula??o e a resist?ncia da economia ?s secas; as estradas - ferrovias e rodovias -, por outro lado, conectariam o sert?o ?s capitais e ao litoral, facilitando o aux?lio ?s popula??es durante as secas e possibilitando a circula??o de bens de forma a fortalecer as economias locais em tempos normais. As pr?ticas e t?cnicas adotadas, adaptadas de experi?ncias estrangeiras e desenvolvidas a partir de tentativas e ajustes, consolidaram-se como um curso de interven??o eminentemente espacial, ainda que n?o tenha se formado um corpo te?rico de planejamento regional ou territorial no Brasil. O Planejamento Regional propriamente dito teve in?cio no pa?s exatamente pela regi?o Nordeste, na d?cada de 1950, partindo de uma leitura econ?mica da realidade para atingir o desenvolvimento. O trabalho que os engenheiros efetuaram previamente, no entanto, n?o pode ser descartado. Ficou provado que, apesar de enfrentar entraves financeiros e pol?ticos, os engenheiros tinham um profundo comprometimento com o problema e objetivaram agir sistematicamente sobre o espa?o de modo a transformar as rela??es econ?micas e sociais da regi?o, para assim serem vitoriosos em sua luta contra as secas