IAG 1999 Regional Conference on Geomorphology
Gloria Hotel of Rio de Janerio, Brasil, July 17-22, 1999
Abstracts - Sandra Baptista da Cunha and Antonio Jose Teixeira Guerra (Eds.)

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIEF IN HUMAN OCCUPANCY PROCESSES IN BELO HORIZONTE CITY, MINAS GERAIS, BRASIL

Ferreira, C.C.D. and Rodrigues, R.S.

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, MG, Brasil
E-mail: geografo@cefetonline.com.br


In the year of 1897, the village of Curral D'El Rey became the new capital of the Minas Gerais State, and received the name of Belo Horizonte. This new city was planned and projected considering the existing landforms, which determined the way in which population occupied the space on the district. At the very begining, it only occupied low hills with flat tops. Latter on, due to urban growth, the relief determined this occupancy process. On the Southern and Eastern parts of the district, exists a predominance of high summits with ravined slopes and entrenched valleys, which belong to the so called "Quadrilatero Ferrífero". These characteristics limited the urban expansion. There is a different landscape on the Northern and Western parts of the city characterized by a range of low, top-flatted hills, and hills with entrenched valleys, belonging to the "Depressão Periférica do São Francisco", which favoured human occupancy. Nowadays, it is important to consider geologyc-geomorphological research to elaborate environmental planning studies taking into account human occupancy over a certain space, to avoid social problems, as well as problems related to environmental impact.


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