The importance of small cities in the urban network of Amazonas River estuarine region: urban growth, infrastructure and public policies

• Grant number: 09/08613-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Maria Fonseca da Costa
• Grantee: Sandra Maria Fonseca da Costa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (IP&D). Universidade do Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The intensification of the urbanization process in Amazon region, verified in the last two decades, caused social-spatial-environmental transformations. One example of these changes is the cities became important elements inside of the regional space. Predominantly, these cities are small urban agglomerate, with less than twenty thousand inhabitants and they have emancipated recently or have been established many years ago, "possess weak or no infrastructure, they are high depend on public resources, and even though they present a city structure, they lack economic activities characterized as urban" (Oliveira, 2006). The characteristic and importance of these cities in the urban regional context have not been yet studied in its fullness, as well as the urban characteristics, its growth and the relationship of this growth with its capacity to generate resources to invest in infrastructure and quality of life. In this sense, this proposal intends to develop a study using a small city however strongly connected to the rural economy and to the regional urban network as well, located in the state of Pará, in the estuarine region of river Amazon: Ponta de Pedras, the second Brazilian municipality in açaí fruit production. This city has been chosen to let us be able to make a study about rural-urban economy interdependence of this municipality and its implications for quality of life and, at the same time, to establish profiles of inhabitants of small city. (AU)