The periurban landscape of Garanhuns/Brazil: potentialities and contradictions

Abstract

The intense socio-spatial metamorphoses expressed in the landscape of urban centers in regions marked by underdevelopment, such as Latin America, demand attention from the planning and governance process of public policies. In this context, emphasis is given to the landscaping arrangements of the spaces henceforth called peri-urban areas. Included in this reality, Brazil has the periurban reproduction process invigorated by the way in which its cities are historically originated and/or expanded, implying dynamics even in intermediate urban centers with relevant influence in their hinterlands and far from traditional metropolitan regions. Considering the growing vitality of these centers and, mainly, the socio-environmental and socio-spatial repercussions that the peri-urban landscape of these cities reflects, the question was asked: what dynamics imply in the configuration of the peri-urban landscape of such cities, producing potentialities and contradictions? Bearing in mind the attribute of the landscape as a starting point for understanding the systems of objects and systems of actions that constitute space, as well as the complexity of the analytical object of Geography, this research was based on the case of the city de Garanhuns, intermediate center located in the southern Agreste of the state of Pernambuco-Brazil. This time, the objective of this study was to analyze the main dynamics that influence the configuration of the peri-urban landscape of the city of Garanhuns-PE/Brazil, highlighting the potentialities and socio-spatial contradictions that affect society on a local scale. The results obtained indicate socio-environmental potentialities related to the existence of a peculiar natural framework that needs to be better managed and conserved. For this, it is necessary to review the public policies that guide economic and urban-regional growth, overcoming the contradictions that segregate populations in vulnerable areas, precariously served by the public power.