Cartography and urban planning: dasymetric mapping of socioeconomic and health data of São Paulo City

• Grant number: 10/12619-7
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: November 01, 2010 - October 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Physical Geography
• Principal researcher: Ligia Vizeu Barrozo
• Grantee: Ligia Vizeu Barrozo
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Ailton Luchiari ; Alfredo Pereira de Queiroz Filho ; Reinaldo Paul Pérez Machado

Abstract

In studies on health and urban planning, maps have been used to identify risky areas rising etiological hypothesis (in the case of diseases), aiding in planning and management of public health problems and assessing the impact and benefit of strategies. The main cartographic technique used is the choroplethic mapping to represent relative data. Nevertheless, this technique causes distortion giving the idea that diseases and population occur homogeneously in the entire area and that the size and limits of units are fixed. Choropleth maps give the notion that population is homogeneously distributed even when some portions are in fact, uninhabited (e.g., cemeteries, parks, airport, squares, industrial and commercial areas, etc.). The present level of knowledge required to face the complex urban planning and health issues and the availability of computational resources allow searching other techniques of representation, as the dasymetric mapping. Dasymetric mapping can be defined as the process of disaggregating spatial data to a finer unit of analyses using ancillary data to localize population and other phenomena. Only now the dasymetric technique finds computational means able of permitting its implementation: it is necessary hardware of high capacity, geoprocessing softwares, satellite imagery or orthophotos, training in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing, spatial analyses, statistics, spatial and/or tabular ancillary data. Thus, this project aims to develop a methodology to refine the cartographic representation of socioeconomic and health ratios and index through dasymetric mapping of the Sao Paulo City. Additionally, we intend to elaborate a Dasymetric Atlas of Socioeconomic Indicators and Mortality of this municipality, from 2008 to 2010, aiming the analysis of the geographic distribution of mortality and socioeconomic population features. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BARROZO, LIGIA VIZEU; PEREZ-MACHADO, REINALDO PAUL; SMALL, CHRISTOPHER; CABRAL-MIRANDA, WILLIAM. Changing spatial perception: dasymetric mapping to improve analysis of health outcomes in a megacity. Journal of Maps, v. 12, n. 5, p. 1242-1247, 2016. Web of Science Citations: 4.