Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 2015

The Urbanized Areas 2015 project aims at providing an overview of the urbanization process in Brazil through the mapping (vectorization) of urbanized areas from satellite images. Pioneered by the IBGE in 2005, this initiative returns today aligned with the needs of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the SDG 11 of the 2030 Global Agenda, as well as of the New Urban Agenda, established by the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development - Habitat III.

This publication includes a methodological report with the objectives and operational procedures adopted, both in the identification of the urbanized areas in Brazil and in the classification and calculation of their areas. It also presents the first results, related to the urbanized areas of the Urban Concentrations in Brazil above 300 thousand inhabitants, as well as to the municipalities of Palmas (TO) and Boa Vista (RR). Such mapping will eventually include the urbanized spots of urban concentrations with a smaller demographic size.

Major technological advances, allowing a more accurate mapping of the urbanized spots in Brazil, took place between the release of Urbanized Areas 2005 and that of Urbanized Areas 2015. The project aims at providing a perspective of the Brazilian urbanization, in order to complement studies on the urban form and its regional distinctions, on the influence of the physical environment (topography, rivers, etc.) on the conformation of urbanized areas, as well as studies on the identification of trends and potential vectors of expansion of cities.

The results of this mapping provide inputs for the analysis of land use, giving and overview of the stage of the Brazilian urbanization in the first half of the 2010s. Every area in this study was mapped with the same methodology. Images from 2011 to 2014 in the 1:50,000 scale of the RapidEye satellite were used. The polygons of the urbanized areas were classified into two categories: dense and less dense. The dense areas show a continuous urban occupation, with small spacing between the constructions and higher capillarity of thoroughfares. Urban forms can be noticed in less dense areas, though with a more spaced occupation. This classification includes allotments still under construction and areas located in the outskirts of dense spots, characterizing a transition between the rural and urban landscape or even small isolated occupations, like, for example, headquarters of municipal districts.