Estudos urbano-regionais na área de influência do Recife

Resumo

It is sought in this work, to exemplify the relationship between urbanization and regional development, making use of the studies conducted in the Recife area of influence.

This relationship is observed through various aspects covering: a) the inter-regional comparison between the stage of urbanization and of development in the area of influence under consideration, and that existing in another region, Jet us say, for example, in São Paulo. The urbanization level can be defined, for example, by an indicator such as the urban multiplication, (Brian Berry "Hierarchical Diffusion: The Basis of Developmental Filtering and Spread in a system of Growth Centers". Growth Centers in Regional Economic Development, ed. by Niles M. Hansen, The Free Press, N. York, 1972 pp. 109-110), whereas the development level can be expressed by means of a varied number of socioeconomic indicators; b) the intra-regional comparison between the stages of urbanization and development and amongst various expanses of the Recife region of influence. In this connection, a feature that is well worthy of interest concerns the rapports between the spread of industrial activities and the dimension of the urban centers in terms of population and urban hierarchy. The study, therefore, assumes that:

- the population - or namely, the urbanization in measure of the population - is a critical element in the description, of the developmental process, although it is rather more a concomitant of development than the contrary (this explains why there exist so many Jags between the size of the cities and their development level);

- the apropos of the system of central localities, defined by the urban hierarchy (system of relations) and by the urban structure (here considered as a description of the interrelationship structure of an assemblage of variables which can be assumed sufficient to describe the effect of the development process in the framework the cities characteristics);

- the importance of industrialization in regional development, through multiplication of inter and intra-regional connections and their relation with urbanization;

- that the evolution of the system of cities and, including also industrial activities, embodies a pronounced polarization and spacial integration.

The bases for drawing up a plan for urban-regional development refer to a system of relationships which provides support for the integration of the region under consideration inside the national complex, as well as an inter-regional union of interests. The role of the highest hierarchical city of the region - the regional metropolis - has to be stressed insofar as the promotion of these inter and intra-regional polarization and integration processes are concerned.

The present work has as fundamental background:

a) an analysis of the cities hierarchy in the region of Recife, its areas of influence and the multiplication effect on the system at each level of hierarchy, as also the relations observed between the effective-urban multiplication and the urbanization;

b) an analysis of the structure of the urban system in the region of Recife based on factorial analysis and with the use of a series of variables that characterize the cities from the socioeconomic point of view;

c) studies of industrial activity in the Recife region of influence, based on survey questionnaires that covered a group of establishments in Greater Recife and on the censal data to hand.

Among the conclusions, the following are underscored:

- by the effects of urbanization and development of industrial activities, a model of organization of the Northeast is at the stage of elaboration.

A fact immediately brought to light is at the level of the urban system taken as a whole: Recife shows a high degree hypertrophy in relation to the rest of the system, coherent with the stage of development of the region. A high degree of urban primacy is assumed to prevail at this stage.

- Recife was found, to a certain extent, apt to breed multiplication effects, in the sense of the organization of an assemblage of Level 2 centers subordinate to that city; and to the same extent, each one of these Level 2 centers (particularly the 2a ones), have, subordinate to the~elves, a Level 3 complex of centers. In other words, this means to say that, Recife's hypertrophy notwithstanding, this metropolis managed, even so, to achieve a certain regularity in respect to unfolding the system down to Level 3, or namely, the sub-regional centers.

It is interesting, equally, to note that despite the debility of the Recife Area of Influence in terms of industrial structure, it is these Level 2 regional centers which, after Recife, manage to attract secondary activities on a relatively expressive scale, so that, in the Northeastern context, they appear as growth poles. It must be stated that the aforementioned sector, that of the state government, merits once again to gain credit for this, inasmuch as it endeavors to promote and attract. installation of industries in the respective state capital.

- The problem of regional development in the Northeast does not, properly speaking, depend on the fact that the rural population still figures as a very high proportion of the total, but on the relation between this fact and the lack of a better income distribution or diffusion of material and spiritual benefits. As is well known, the agrarian bases of Recife were never able to provide it with business communities or with a middle-class, in proportions that might at least have some similarity with what one sees in the South of Brazil.

- Urbanization, as it is everywhere, appears as a transformation process, and the statistics themselves that were recently presented show a difference to the better in the urban ambit. The study effected shows the scale advantages in the urbanization phenomenon. Thus, for example, we saw that "if comparison is made between the 20 first cities class!fied in Factor I (Functional Size), and the first 20 cities classified in Factor II (Development and Urbanization), it is observed that, in both cases, the cities are the same with a certain shift in their order, in the 2 factors".

- The filtering of innovations in the Recife area of influence is considered as having an isomorphic effect on urbanization and lt embodies the introduction and the development of industrial activities.

- Our conceptual scheme, in principle, restricts industrial district organization action to the cities belonging to Groups 1, 2, 3 and 8, even so, providing that localized and more detailed studies effected, show that conditions do exist for growth. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that such cities as Caruaru or Juazeiro do Norte leave roam for thought as to considering the advantages of establishing an industrial district there.

- The policy of urbanization envisages two possible routes to be followed in the Northeastern modernization process. On one hand, there is the action taken, starting for that matter right in the rural zone, producing its effects in the centers of lowest hierarchy and, on the other hand, the actuating in cities on the intermediate hierarchical scale, such as Caruaru, Campina Grande or Grato-Juazeiro do Norte, cities which have already demonstrated a certain fitness in the matter of the establishment of regional articulations.