Expansão Urbana da Cidade de Sete Lagoas/MG entre 1949 e 2010

The city of Sete Lagoas is one of the most important industry centers of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Due to its economic importance the last years has presented a medium population increase of 2.44% per year. Considering its historical economic and urban population increase, this work aims to identify where this expansion occurred during the last six decades. The analyses of the area occupied by the city in 1949, 1965, 1972, 1989, 2000 and 2010 was based on the visually digitalization of georreferenced aerial photographs, Landsat satellite images, and a topographic base maps, using geographic information systems. This variation was compared with the urban population increases during the last decades. The highest urban increase occurred mainly after 1960, same period when several industries were implanted on the city. Such socio-economic transformations were caused by the growth of the secondary sector (industry) and their effects on the tertiary sector (trade and services). The space-time expansion of the city is related with the geographic location of the enterprises installed in it, and it is probable that the city will expand on the future mainly to the North (next to the enterprises Fiat-Iveco and AmBev) and next to the Shopping Center recently opened.Pages: 4011-401