Intraurban structuring in the Brazilian Federal District and surrounding region: mobility and socio spatial segregation of the population

Abstract

The objective of this article is to evaluate changes in the distribution and spatial mobility of a population, changes which can be associated with the process of urbanization and with the intra-urban structuring in the RIDE Region (Integrated Development Region of the Brazilian Federal District). This large area includes not only the Federal District itself, but other nearby municipalities belonging to the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais as well. Specific characteristics related to the process of economic development, territorial occupation and urban administration, are discussed, aspects that distinguish it from the other large urban areas in the country and from the so-called metropolitan areas, especially in aspects related to the possibilities of the influence of the states on urban administration, due to the peculiarities of the process of the territorial occupation of the Federal District. The Federal District began expanding in the 1950s as a planned city destined to be a center of development as well as the seat of the Federal Government. These specific characteristics, however, were unable to promote any equal appropriation of different areas in the urban space, causing the socio-spatial configuration of the RIDE to resemble those found in general in the other urban regions in the country, especially concerning the inequalities in the socio-spatial distribution of the population.