Análise da expansão do perímetro urbano de Campina Grande - PB: identificação de vazios urbanos, áreas agrícolas e cenários de ocupação.

Abstract

Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that is happening worldwide in an accelerated way. The impacts that the increase of the cities has generated, in environmental issues and in the quality of life of the population, are perceptible over the years. Especially when it occurs in a disorganized, fragmented and low density way. In Brazil, urban expansion occurs towards its fringes, typically used for agricultural purposes, which increases the complexity of the analyses, involving social, economic and environmental aspects. The objective of the present study is to evaluate, with population growth projections, urban voids and possible impacts in the agricultural areas, the capacity of occupying the current urban perimeter of Campina Grande PB for a 20year horizon. Currently, Campina Grande goes through an evaluation process to expand its urban perimeter, which justifies the development of this study that allows a better spatial evaluation of the municipal territory. For this, remote sensing techniques quantification of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were used, which allowed to observe the presence of agricultural production areas from the analysis of 45 Landsat images for the year 2014 and two RapidEye images. The simulations of occupation of the city were carried out based on the filling of the still empty spaces and increase of occupancy density, evaluating the need to expand the urban perimeter in the short and medium term. With the results of the research, it is possible to perceive the existence of agricultural areas in the urban fringes of Campina Grande that can be affected by the increase of the urban perimeter. Through the simulation of occupancy scenarios, it is noticeable that the urban perimeter of Campina Grande still includes population growth for a horizon of more than 20 years.