IBGE makes available today (03/25/2015), on its website, a set of maps of the 'Urbanized Areas of Brazil'.

This work results from the analysis and mapping (vectorization) of the urbanized areas based on images produced by the CBERS-2B satellite, at 1:100,000 scale (1cm = 1km). Most of the images which constitute the basis of the mapping are from the period between 2005 and 2007.

The maps are available, in digital format, on IBGE’s web page, on link:http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/geociencias/geografia/geografia_urbana/areas_urbanizadas/default.shtm

In the maps, the urbanized spots were classified in three categories: very dense, dense and little dense. The very dense spot usually corresponds to central areas of great urban agglomerations, with a sharp concentration of constructions, with presence of verticalization and almost absence of impermeabilized soil.

On the other hand, the dense spot is characterized by a continuous urban occupation, low verticalization, with prevalence of houses, little space between the constructions and a greater presence of non-impermeabilized soil.

At last, the spot classified as little dense is characterized by the presence of urban features (streets, blocks, etc.) and scattered occupation. Such classification includes areas still being occupied or a transition between urban and rural landscapes, usually located at the margins of the dense spot. However, there are cases in which a little dense spot is found in isolated, small occupations, as, for example, municipal district headquarters.

The study comprises three different sets of Urbanized Areas:

• Urbanized Areas of great urban agglomerations, which uses as basis the territorial division adopted in the survey 'Areas of Influence of Cities' - REGIC (2007) and presents all urban agglomerations or isolated municipalities with population above 350 thousand inhabitants in 2000;
• Urbanized Areas of municipalities of the Coastal Zone of Brazil, which includes the urbanized spots of the coastal municipalities as defined by the National Plan of Coastal Management II and depicts the status of the urbanization of the Brazilian coastal zone, taking as reference the year 2005;
• Urbanized Areas of municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, taking as reference the population estimate of IBGE for 2005.

São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília had the largest urbanized areas in 2005

The scenario of the Urbanized Areas in Brazil in 2005 ratifies São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as the top two national cities as far as constructed areas are concerned and it also indicates the consolidation of Brasília as the third city in urbanized areas, above Curitiba and Belo Horizonte. With an urbanized area of 266.53 km², Manaus comes as the first city in terms of urbanized extension in the North and Northeast Regions. In decreasing order, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Campinas and Porto Alegre close the set of the top ten cities by urbanized area.

Considering the extension of the urbanized areas by category, the very dense areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro occupy the first positions among the national cities. The case of São Paulo reveals a high degree of occupation in its urbanized area, since 95.7% of its urban spot is classified as very dense. This value is significantly below that of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, whose classification very dense represents 67.6% of its urbanized area. Next, are the municipalities of Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Campinas. Porto Alegre and Guarulhos, with the same classification (very dense), occupy the eighth and the tenth position in this set.

                 Top 10 urbanized areas in Brazil – by size according to category

Source: Source: CBERS 2B images, between 2003 and 2008, georeferenced based on LANDSAT 8 of the Geocover Series-2000;Data from Population Estimate 2005- IBGE (07/01/2005).

In the category dense, Manaus and Campo Grande present the largest extensions of urbanized areas, which places them into the set of the largest Brazilian urbanized areas within the same classification contiguously, the 6th and 7th positions. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, it is very significant the existence of a dense urban area, which occupies around 20% of total urbanized area in the city of Rio and places it on the 9th position in the set of the largest Brazilian urbanized areas by contiguity of classification. For this same reason, the capital of Rio appears two times among the urbanized areas by total extension: in the categories very dense and dense.