| dc.description.abstract | This paper presents analytical and planning resources offered by a geographic information system database of buildings, which resulted from work developed towards the formulation of a regeneration plan for Ribeira, part of the old town centre of Natal (RN), Brazil, which has suffered a process of decay and loss of vitality in the last decades as is the case of many older central areas throughout the world. A database of all the buildings in the area was built by entering information from descriptive and photographic records obtained through fieldwork, into the Spring (INPE) GIS application. This database allows for the mapping and consultation of distinct variables considered important for building knowledge about the urban situation and estimating possibilities of change. It has been used as a base for proposals designed to overcome consequences of the current state and may be expanded to include information from other databases (i.e. demographic). It is also being used as a reference for the construction of similar databases for other areas of Natal. Despite the severe difficulties encountered in the process of building the GIS database, due to the poor quality of the available cartographic plans, the use of a GIS tool has proved very helpful as an urban planning resource in the Ribeira project. | pt_BR |
