Proteção dos recursos hídricos de areas urbanas em crescimento : avaliação multi-critérios em sistemas de informações geográficas

Urbanization is one of the greatest manifestations of human activities. Nowadays, world’s explosive urbanization and the problems connected with it pose an important social question. Unbridled urbanization has an expressive tendency to cause dramatic problems, especially on the water resources in terms of quantitative and qualitative changes. Sheltered in a policy delimited in master plan, the planning of the city must incorporate – according to local realities and its particularities –appropriate patterns of landscape in order to achieve sustainable development. The current article aims to establish which zones in Porto Alegre city are more suitable for urbanization. It uses a Multi Criteria Evaluation process in a geographical information systems environment, taking into account human and natural factors and the current Master Plan for the city, with a focus on water resources.

Sistemas de informações geográficas no estudo da lógica locacional de assentamentos irregulares : o caso de Gravataí – RS

This study investigates the spatial logic of squatter settlements location by using a Geographic Information System – GIS. The process of analysis established, preliminary, the selection and standardization of a set of factors witch we considered influential to the locational issue: (a) slope; (b) distance from water resources; (c) distance from roads; (d) distance from urbanization; (e) distance from industrial zones; (f) distance from preservation areas; (g) average income; and (h) population density. Subsequently, these factors have been integrated into a “Potential Map” through a multi-criteria evaluation method. Finally, potential map have been compared to real location of squatter settlements in Gravataí, RS. The approach developed here has provide information for a better understanding of the topic, which can be used for urban planning purposes.