Montes Claros/MG cidade saudável?: análise a partir de indicadores intraurbanos

Abstract

The urbanization growth in the world from the second half of the nineteenth century, mainly due to the industrialization progress, was a factor that generated a diversity of urban problems of spatial, economic, social and environmental nature. In this context, projects, agendas and actions began to be carried out in order to improve the lives of the population in cities and achieve more pleasant, inclusive and safe urban environments, a proposal that converges with the objectives recommended by the UN 2030 Agenda and with the Healthy Cities Movement started in Canada between the 1970s and 1980s. In Brazil, from the 1970s onwards, cities experienced significant growth, a phenomenon that is associated with the existence of attraction factors in urban areas, such as the presence of industries, greater employment opportunities, as well as factors of ejection in the countryside, such as land concentration, all of which caused an environmental and urban issue that directly interfered with the life quality of the cities’ population, especially of the most unfavored groups. In this sense, from the proposition of a Healthy Cities Index (ICS), this work evaluates the living conditions in the intraurban space of Montes Claros, a tool that can assist public administration in the creation of effective policies to mitigate the main urban problems, from the perspective of the Healthy Cities Movement. Thus, for the construction of the index, indicators related to health, education, urban infrastructure, free public green spaces and socioeconomic level were considered. These indicators were selected based on case studies that worked on methodologies related to the life quality in the urban space and the search for Healthy Cities. The methodological approach of this research consisted of a theoretical analysis on the topics Healthy Cities, urbanization, industrialization, urban problems and indicators of life quality in cities; elaboration of maps using the free software QGIS version 3.20.3 and the calculation of the Healthy Cities Index from the free software RStudio version 4.1.1. In the verification carried out, a classification by quartiles was made in which it was observed that the planning regions Ibituruna, Morada do Parque, Todos os Santos, Vila Guilhermina and Centro, located respectively in the west, south and central areas of the city, were the ones that presented the best values for the ICS, ranging from 0.761 to 0.864. These are areas that concentrate closed condominiums of high building standard and the highest per-capita incomes in the city. In contrast, the regions Santos Reis (west zone), Distrito Industrial, Village do Lago (both in the north zone), Carmelo (east zone) and Santo Inácio (south zone) fell within the range of the lowest values for the ICS, from 0.657 to 0.706, showing that these areas in fact have less access to basic services. It is noteworthy that the Village do Lago and Industrial District regions concentrate large housing blocks, a high population group that lives on low income and segregated from the rest of the city. From the analysis presented, it was possible to identify the areas of Montes Claros and its issues, hence the need for public intervention, with a view to building a healthier urban environment. The search for healthy cities is a pressing issue, since the mitigation of urban problems is a necessary condition for the population living in cities to live with a better quality of life.