Cidade e crescimento periférico: modelagem e simulação da formação de periferias urbanas com autômatos celulares.

Abstract

Cities’ growth has been studied in order to search understanding about socio-spatial phenomena that are inherent to this process. One of these phenomena is the peripheral growth that occurs in the inter-faces of cities with natural or rural environments, where residential constructions, from both high and low socioeconomic classes, prevail. This way, the investigation approaches the formation of urban pe-ripheries from urban morphology, understanding that physical space and society are directly associated. The study aims to identify relations between morphology and peripheral growth dynamics, seeking loca-tion patterns and forms of urban patches patterns related to periphery production in cities in Southern Brazil. Modeling techniques and geosimulation by cellular automata are used considering aspects of the city and the natural environment in an integrated manner. Exploratory experiments are designed with a model of urban growth by cellular automata implemented in the CityCell software and applied to the empirical case of a city in the extreme South of Brazil: Pelotas, RS. These experiments are dedicated to simulating the formation of peripheries, following the hypothesis of association of location patterns and forms of the patches patterns of peripheral types in urban structure with concentration of urban facilities and built stocks, with characteristics from the natural environment and with characteristics of socioeco-nomic similarity of neighborhoods. Results show a high level of accuracy in the simulation of the formal structure of the stains that correspond to both peripheral types. Although studies do not allow locational predictions for future scenarios, they make it possible to speculate about arrangements of forms of the peripheries in the urban structure in Southern Brazil cities, which can contribute with decision making systems for urban planning. Furthermore, this research also allows enhancing the discussion towards theoretical understanding of the peripheral growth phenomenon and development of urban models with cellular automata.