Geoinformatics For The Visibility Of Urban Areas In The Amazon Cities

Urbanization is a central element in the study of sustainable development scenarios for Amazon. However, it remains secondary in the plans and agendas for the region. This article presents an analysis of the urban extension detected in general mapping bases based on orbital remote sensing data for the year 2010. Six cities in the state of Para, with different socio-spatial and historical contexts, are the case of studies: Altamira, Cameta, Itaituba, Novo Progresso, Santarem, and Sao Felix do Xingu. We accessed seven general and global databases that mapped urbanized areas based on data compatible with Landsat imagery. From RapidEye images for 2011, we delineated spatial patterns of intra-urban occupation that were integrated into those mapping databases. An analysis of consistency and agreement between those bases and the spatial patterns was undertaken using a regular grid as an integration strategy. Intra-urban occupation patterns with medium and high densities showed agreement, on five or more bases, greater than 90% of the area included in these patterns. The greatest limitations were observed in the pattern with low occupancy density. In general, the analyzed bases allow an approximation of urbanization in the Amazon territory from the cities, although some specificities remain invisible.