Sustainability signatures of coastal municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Dezidério Souto, R.; 2Márcio Leal de Menezes, P.
1UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO, GEOCART Email: raquel.deziderio@gmail.com
2UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO, GEOCART Email: pmenezes@acd.ufrj.br
Abstract
Coastal areas are the regions with the highest rates of urbanization in Brazil, especially because they are attractive to the installation of industries: proximity to estuaries and easy production flow; addition to their landscape and recreational values. The recent economic development in the state of Rio de Janeiro acts as a populational attractor for new economic and financial investments, contributing to worse problems in the various dimensions of sustainability in many of the coastal municipalities. The theme of spatial sustainability in the coastal zone of Rio de Janeiro is treated accordingly a systemic point of view, considering its complex nature. This research aims to evaluate the progress of the coastal municipalities from Rio de Janeiro along the time. With this focus, a system of indicators of spatial sustainability, covering recent data from terrestrial and marine environments is being developed, using the municipality as spatial unit of analysis. Tools of multivariate statistics are used to check the type of association between the indicators and to calculate the weights used in composite indexes formulations. Tools of geoprocessing are used to check whether there was simultaneous improvement in the environmental, economic, social and institutional dimensions in the coastal municipalities – the supposed condition to the achievement of the coastal sustainability. With the release of the results of research, we hope to contribute to integrated coastal zone management of the state of Rio de Janeiro, through the dissemination of relevant information for understanding the progress of coastal municipalities in relation to aspects of spatial sustainability in its various dimensions.