As unidades de paisagem do COREDE NORTE/RS: contribuição metodológica para o entendimento da rede de cidades pequenas

Abstract

The landscape is understood as a set of elements constituted by the geobiophysical support and anthropic activities resulting from human values and desires. This research proposed to identify and analyze the landscape units of a geographic section located at the northern part of the Rio Grande do Sul state (Corede Norte), Brazil. The units were analyzed by means of the geobiophysical, social, and cultural processes and the interrelationships established between the rural and urban spaces of small cities. The methods applied in the case study were the bibliographic review, cartographic procedures, cluster analysis, commented paths, sound tours, visual reading, and chromatic stimuli. The analyzes show that the region is diverse in terms of the structural landscape and geobiophysical processes. Therefore, there is a need to form landscape units, which differ from those instituted by the State. The anthropic effects on the landscape are related to the socio-economic processes been developed in the territory, which act in different spatial and temporal scales, thereby producing direct effects on the physical structure of the landscape. From the cultural and environmental dimensions, it was possible to define a network of cultural landscapes as a proposal for integrating structural and anthropic landscapes. The research found that the landscape is reflected in the socioeconomic data. In small towns, the population finds support in agricultural activities, thus explaining the larger number of residents in the countryside. There are significant differences between the northern and southern parts of the landscape in the study area. These differences were caused by geobiophysical conditions, emphasizing the urban form and the distinct interactions between the cultural landscape units and the rural and urban spaces.