Sustainable Development in the Maranhão Amazon: Proposal of Indicators and Multidimensional Analysis according to the 2030 Agenda (UN)

• Grant number: 24/02361-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Lindon Fonseca Matias
• Grantee: Thiago de Azevedo Cunha
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The second half of the 20th century was marked by the rise of concerns related to the interaction between society and nature, culminating in the proposal of the concept of Sustainable Development (SD) and, later, in the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, the proposal of methodologies capable of analyzing, measuring, and monitoring SD, in its distinct realities and demands, is necessary, aiming to support the development of public policies and management and planning actions that target this development approach. Despite this importance, techniques designed for this purpose, such as SD indices, are not able to effectively measure this development approach on a local and regional scale, as they are based on methodologies developed for global and national scales. From this, this research project aims to analyze the dynamics of SD in the Maranhão Amazon, proposing and applying a methodology for calculation and spatial representation, which will support a discussion about the SD context of the study area. To this end, an index based on environmental, economic, and social data, obtained through Remote Sensing techniques, Citizen Science approaches, and secondary sources, will be proposed. Statistical techniques of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and literature review with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology will be applied to support the theoretical discussion. Finally, a spatial representation technique based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be proposed to demonstrate how SD manifests in the area. From this, results will be generated that, along with the theoretical-methodological framework of Geography and areas analogous to the research theme, will assist in the discussion about the characteristics, possibilities, and obstacles to SD in the study area. The choice of the Maranhão Amazon stems from the intense socio-environmental degradation occurring in this part of the biome, despite its regional, national, and global importance, creating a reality that demands interventions. Therefore, this project aims to contribute to planning and management actions using the index in the process of developing public policies oriented towards SD and the SDGs, as well as advancing research in Geography and studies related to SD and the Amazon biome.