The demographic composition of urban sprawl: local and regional challenges concerning global environmental change in Brazilian metropolitan areas

Ricardo Ojima, Fundação João Pinheiro (FJP)
Daniel Joseph Hogan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

Considering the impact of urbanization on global environmental change, the national urban system, city-regions, metropolitan areas and municipalities, when examined separately, reveal different aspects of the relationship. Considering the impact of the forms of urbanization on the drivers of GEC (land use, water availability, carbon emissions and consumption patterns are all affected by the spatial distribution of population in specific territories), urban sprawl is a phenomenon which requires more study. Growing sprawl results more from consumer preferences than from pure demographic growth, but the demographic composition of sprawl is an issue little understood. The paper seeks to study sprawl at local and regional scales in Brazil. The policy options at the metropolitan and municipal levels will be clearer when sprawl is assessed in an integrated multi-scale approach. Data analysis considered geographically referenced census tracts in conjunction with socio-demographic data and qualitative concerns in selected intra-municipal areas.