The creation and development of rural settlements by the National Program of Land Reform (PNRA) should be based on the needs of the land tenure to keep the small farmers in their lands and on the land use, leading to the practice of the rural integrated development. This development is understood by social, economic and environmental needs of rural and exercised through the social function of rural property. The present work proposed to analyze the environmental dimension of the social function of rural property by application of two legal instruments for conservation imposed by the Brazilian legislation (Law 4.771/1965), APP and RL in rural settlements: the Settlement Project of Eldorado dos Carajás (PAEC). Therefore, this work proposed to use thematic maps from geographical information systems through the generation and overlaying of different plans of information. The application of the cartographic method, in an automated way using GIS, allowed data production, implementation of spatial analysis, and interpretation and presentation of results with significant reduction of time and subjectivity. The use of this methodology in GIS showed that about 52% of the rural settlements have some legal restriction imposed by the legal instruments studied. The largest area of environmental liability refers to the inadequacy of permanent preservation areas in lots.Pages: 4031-403
