Urban growth and areas of risk in of the state São Paulo North Coast

Abstract

Urban growth and sprawl bring with them hazards and risks that are expressed by the lack of adjustment and adherence of urban space production to the natural systems. This situation gets worse when the location itself is naturally vulnerable, as in the case of the North Coast of São Paulo state. This region experienced one of its decades of largest urban and economic growth, in the context of significant transformations associated to oil and gas exploration, the expansion of the port of São Sebastião, changes in touristic activities and the consolidation of urbanization, especially in Caraguatatuba, the center where most of the transformation began. After learning the results of the 2010 Census, it is the appropriate time to measure the intensity and how this growth occurred in the last decade, which was empirically observed, and its relations with hazards and vulnerability. If there is a relation between urbanization and risk, the tendency is that the deep and intense changes may have intensified and created new risk areas, as the urban sprawl reached naturally fragile areas. We have tried to identify the people who live or work in these areas, focusing on the new areas, starting from understanding the process of urbanization in the humid tropics and its consequences in terms of risk and vulnerability, focusing on the 2000 and 2010 census data.