Fragmentation as a pattern for urban expansion in the 21st century

the case of Chapecó (Santa Catarina)

Abstract

This paper discusses urban fragmentation in the face of social problems and environmental vulnerabilities characteristic of the 21st century: it analyzes urban
expansion in Chapecó, a medium-sized city in western Santa Catarina, in the context of agro-industrial regions. With the objective of understanding the transformations, dynamics, and trends that occurred in economic, social, and ecological matters, intertwined with the territory’s
urbanization, the method of spatio-temporal analysis by geoprocessing was applied. For this analysis, the variables of population dynamics, Gross Domestic Product and Land Cover and Land Use transitions in
the interval from 1985 to 2015 were considered. The results obtained show that the fragmentation of the urban sprawl is an ongoing phenomenon in mediumsized developing cities. In them, structural roads are
consolidated as drivers of urban expansion, with spatial contiguities no longer acting as the only solution for the city's social, human, and economic relations, but accessibility, infrastructure, and connections with global
development dynamics.