Understand the Metropolitan Region

(Interview with the chief of staff of the Macrozoning project, Professor Roberto Luís de Melo Monte-Mór.

InMetro – Why does the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte needs to be revaluated?

RMM – The metropolitan region has suffered many changes. Nowadays, the population of 33 cities around Belo Horizonte have more people than Belo Horizonte. In other words, there are many parallel dynamics in a process tending to the decentralization. Belo Horizonte does grow more, and what is around it receives new activities and needs. In this context many conflicts appears and, in some locations, the urban problems does not belong to only to the municipality, but the cities interconnected as well as the State. That is why the urban mobility, environmental problems, and economic and social development in the metropolitan area requires to be revaluated.

InMetro – Because of its extension, the metropolitan region has locals with different characteristics from each other. Does the Macrozoning take into consideration the geographic and economic diversity?

RMM – There are the meeting of at least three great regions. One of them is the iron square, which covers the cities of Sabará, Santa Bárbara, Mariana, Congonhas, Ouro Preto, and others. The strength of these locations are the production of iron and manganese. There is also the hill on the way to the Central Plateau that goes to Sete Lagoas, North and Northeast. The sea of hills1 and the depression of Belo Horizonte, which goes all the way to Sao Paulo, produce more gravel and sand. As the metropolitan area has intense and diverse mining, many conflicts arise. Furthermore, there is the problem concerning the water and environmental resources, which gained attention over the years, because of the mining areas. We need to follow this to understand the metropolitan region, which has urban occupation before the founding of Belo Horizonte.

InMetro – Why is the macrozoning the most indicated way to direct the goals of a metropolitan region?

RMM – The macrozoning is a classical tool of planning. Any change on the master plan of the city, they use the land zoning tool. The macrozoning defines by what goes where, how the landing will be distributed.

InMetro – As you said, the PDDI works with a logic of decentralization and share of responsibilities between the cities and State. How will this sharing be possible?

RMM – That is the point Macrozoning and PDDI complete each other. The proposal is to integrate the work into the law through a bill so the Assembly of Minas Gerais (ALMG) can appreciate the matter. The Macrozoning allows us to map the areas and zones of metropolitan interest. This map will clear the locations where agreements among the cities and the State will be important. It is a new and necessary work in the country, because of that, the metropolitan level does not exist politically, thus it makes the metropolitan arrangement of Belo Horizonte an original project.)

1 Sea of hills: check definition out.