URBAN GRADIENT

Abstract

Assim como em muitos outros países, as medidas oficiais de urbanização no Brasil têm se mostrado incapazes de distinguir adequadamente os padrões espaciais de organização rural e urbana. A literatura discute diversos sistemas de classificação e reconhece a existência de um “contínuo rural-urbano”, bem como referenciais teóricos e categorizações alternativas que visam ir além da dicotomia urbano-rural. Contudo, não existem soluções práticas para formalizá-los ou operacionalizá-los adequadamente, especialmente em nível micro, como o dos setores censitários. Propomos uma metodologia que assume um contínuo rural-urbano mensurável. O “Índice de Gradiente Urbano” utiliza variáveis ​​simples e abrangentes para quantificar o grau de urbanização de uma determinada área com base em características demográficas e espaciais. Construímos o índice em nível de setores censitários tanto para o Brasil quanto para a Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, a fim de verificar a consistência em diferentes níveis de agregação. Os resultados indicam que o índice proporciona um retrato muito mais matizado dos padrões de assentamento, revelando um gradiente espacial entre o rural e o urbano em diferentes extensões espaciais. Oferece uma vantagem em relação à medida tradicional de “grau de urbanização” ao revelar “ruralidades ocultas” em áreas predominantemente urbanas que requerem intervenções específicas de planejamento territorial e políticas públicas. Palavras-chave: Gradiente Urbano, Contínuo Rural-Urbano, Planejamento Territorial, Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

Author Biographies

Alisson Flávio Barbieri, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil

PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2005). Full Professor at the Department of Demography at the Federal University of Minas Gerais; Researcher at the Center for Development and Regional Planning (CEDEPLAR/UFMG); and Member of the Scientific Committee of Rede Clima (MCTI). He was Research Scholar at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University; Visiting Scholar at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;. Associate Faculty of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University (JHU); Professor of the Master's Program in Sustainable Development Practices at UFRRJ; and Director of the Steering Committee of the Population and Environment Research Network (Columbia University, New York). He has acted as coordinator or researcher in several national and international research projects. He has experience in the area of Demography, with an emphasis on spatial distribution of the population, working mainly on the following topics: population mobility (internal and international), human dimensions of global environmental changes, demography of disasters, demographic dynamics in the Amazon and in the urban environment, planning regional and urban.

Marden Barbosa de Campos, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil

PhD in Demography from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (2010). He is currently an assistant professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a permanent professor at the Graduate Program in Sociology at UFMG. He is coordinator of the Demography of Indigenous Peoples Working Group of the Brazilian Association for Population Studies. He worked for more than 15 years at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, having participated in the planning, collection and analysis of two national demographic censuses and a population count. He coordinated or participated in the collection and elaboration team of several researches of the institute. He is currently head of the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Diego Rodrigues Macedo, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil

PhD in Ecology - Conservation and Management of Wild Life (UFMG, 2013). Since 2016 he is an assistant Professor at the Department of Geography and at the Graduate Programs in 'Geography' and 'Analysis and Modeling of Environmental Systems' at the Institute of Geosciences at UFMG. He has experience in the field of Physical Geography, Water Resources, Landscape Ecology, Geoecology, Biomonitoring, Geographic Information Systems, Spatial Statistics and Territorial Planning. CNPq Productivity Scholarship - Physical Geography.

Rodrigo Coelho de Carvalho, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil

PhD (2017) in Demography by the Center for Development and Regional Planning of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (CEDEPLAR/FACE/UFMG). He has experience in the areas of Demography and Geography, especially in the themes of spatial distribution of the population, migrations, urban and regional studies, spatial and socioeconomic analysis. As of 2007, he began to act as a consultant in the public and private sector in the preparation of socioeconomic studies and diagnoses, Environmental Impact Studies (EIA), Environmental Impact Reports (RIMA), environmental technical reports, production of maps, demographic projections, among other works. In 2017 and 2018, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Public Policy and Human Rights in Health and Sanitation group (PPDH) at the René Rachou Institute / Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ-MG). In 2022, he assumed the position of substitute assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the Institute of Geosciences at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (IGC/UFMG). He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate Program in Demography at CEDEPLAR / FACE / UFMG (PNPD / CAPES scholarship holder).

Reinaldo Onofre dos Santos, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora (MG), Brazil

PhD in Demography (CEDEPLAR-UFMG). He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Geosciences at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. His main topics of interest are: spatial distribution of the population, urban and regional analysis, territorial planning, study of multi-state populations, demographic analysis techniques, analysis techniques in migration, production of indicators and evidence-based management.

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DATA AVAILABILITY

The spatial data containing the Urban Gradient index to census tract and aggregated by municipality are available on https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4540710 and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4540714 respectively.
Published
09/05/2023
How to Cite
BARBIERI, Alisson Flávio et al. URBAN GRADIENT. Mercator, Fortaleza, v. 22, may 2023. ISSN 1984-2201. Available at: <http://www.mercator.ufc.br/mercator/article/view/e22008>. Date accessed: 20 may 2026. doi: https://doi.org/10.4215/rm2023.e22008.
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ARTICLES