GEO Brasil - UNEP

the state of the environment in Brazil
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Configuration of the Current Urban Network
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Metropolitan Regions
The Brazilian urban network now falls into two systems: a
system with polarising cities and an axis-oriented system
Metropolitan areas are still strong hubs of economic
activities Public investments to be applied in development
axes, however, help shape the country’s territory as they
favour dynamic spaces This occurs to the detriment of
those areas with poor economic dynamics or ones in
stagnation
The country currently has 5,561 municipalities scattered
throughout a territory of 8,514,2153 km2, in five large regions
(North, Northeast, MidWest, South and Southeast) (IBGE
2002) Today, the urban network shows that the overall
configuration of the national territory remains unchanged,
except for urban development in the Amazon and for the
way States are divided The occupied sectors in the
economic areas have also been intensified in the Cerrado
and part of the Amazon (Map 1)
For four centuries, the construction of the Brazilian urban
network followed the slow pace of exploration of a vast
territory, always in low-density conditions The dynamic
development of the Brazilian urban network was due not
only to the growth of the Brazilian population, but also to
its mobility
Domestic migrations were intensified by the country’s
industrialisation process and drove the rural population to
the cities It was massively concentrated in the urban
peripheries of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and, to a lesser
degree, in other cities that were considered regional hubs
Such clusters were responsible for the development of nine
metropolitan regions in the country 1 in order to better focus
on the management of urban, social and environmental
problems in those areas The original spatial configuration
of Metropolitan Regions has been undergoing changes over
the past few decades, thus increasing the number of areas
considered as metropolitan regions and of municipalities
that comprise such areas
1
Complementary Law no 14, of 06/08/1973, establishes the Metropolitan Regions of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, Curitiba, Belém and
Fortaleza; Complementary Law no 20, of 07/10/1974, establishes the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro
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