Urbanization and Geomorphological Changes: The Case of Lavapés Stream Watershed – Rio Claro (SP)

Abstract

In the last 60 years, many cities in Brazil practically doubled your populations. As result of this process, there was a rise in the number of unstable areas, in the physical point of view, that were occupied and in the execution of several anthropic interventions in the natural environment, reorganizing the geographical processes and forms of existing landforms. In this context, this article aims to discuss the results obtained by the means of analysis of geomorphological changes derived from the urbanization processes, in Lavapés stream watershed, located in the city of Rio Claro (SP). The results showed here were achieved by means of the usage of historical-evolutionary geomorphological cartography. For that, there were manufactured geomorphological and land usage maps for the years of 1962, 1988 and 2010, and a declivity map. Such scenarios were analyzed by the methodological point of view of the Anthropogeomorphology, which uses General Systems Theory applied in Geography. The main changes are located over the streambed, which had your source grounded and your bed turned rectilinear and ducted, being, nowadays, covered by an avenue, besides the occupation of you sides, predominantly urbanized, factor that caused the changes in the circulation system of your surface waters.