Urban centrality: a characterization in the Florianópolis Urban Agglomeration-SC

Abstract

In urban society, cities are configured as economic hubs and have a strong tendency towards metropolization, forming sprawling and polynucleated urban fabrics. The multiple centralities resulting from the urban expansion process are generally established in the most accessible places in the settlements. Florianópolis, capital of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, presents a growth process like other Brazilian cities. During the last decades, the municipality stands out in administrative, tourist and technological activities. The increase in economic dynamics caused the conurbation among the urban fabrics of São José, Palhoça and Biguaçu, which made this the main urban agglomeration in the state. The dispersed urban fabric is organized over a rugged relief, composed by the continental and the island portions, where centralities with different functionalities are consolidated. In this way, this paper identifies and categorizes the centralities of the Florianópolis Urban Agglomeration. The Space Syntax Theory, particularly the variable called integration value, made possible to survey the most accessible areas of the settlement and, with it, identify potential centralities. Then, these areas were evaluated based on secondary attributes related to centralities: land use, demographic density and copresence. It was found which regions of the urban fabric present qualities of centrality, being them categorized as main center, morphological center, subcenters and specialized centers.