Population Distribution and Sustainability: Urbanization Alternatives in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

Daniel Joseph Hogan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

This paper develops a framework for evaluating alternative spatial patterns of population distribution in the interior of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The Piracicaba Basin, with a population of approximately 4 million in 2000, is one of Brazil's most developed regions. Ninety percent of its population live in cities, in a conurbation which extends for more than 100 miles along major state highways (nearly connecting with the fringes of the metropolitan area of São Paulo), and in smaller cities distributed throughout the region. Current migration flows and consequent urbanization patterns reinforce these conditions. Flows have been in the direction of the larger cities and their immediate hinterlands, with acute environmental problems. Within municipalities, a horizontal pattern of growth has produced both conurbation and urban sprawl, reducing vegetative cover, increasing the cost of providing basic sanitary infrastructure and promoting car-use, with increasing air pollution.