Author(s)

Marcos Roberto Martines^1*, Rogério Hartung Toppa², Ricardo Vicente Ferreira³, Alexandre Cavagis⁴, Fernando Shinji Kawakubo⁵, Rúbia Gomes Morato⁵

¹Department of Geography, Tourism and Humanities, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba, Brazil.
²Department of Environmental Science, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba, Brazil.
³Department of Geography, Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Uberaba, Brazil.
⁴Department of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba, Brazil.
⁵Department of Geography, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil.

There has been great interest on the part of public and private initiatives in knowing the location of urban areas with potential for investments in social resources. The aim of the present article is to propose a methodology to identify such areas, using the city of São Paulo (Brazil) as a case study. This approach, supported by The Geographic Information System (GIS), is based on multicriteria analysis and quantification of spatial data. The results, presented spatially in a synthesis map, made possible to identify promissory areas for social investment in São Paulo. The method allows us to analyze data at different spatial scales from the GIS base, enabling a systematization to find out areas with higher potential for investment in social equipment, services and facilities. Furthermore, it gives possibility of modeling several variables, thus being adaptable to different geographic areas.

Urban Social Investment, Spatial Multicriteria Analysis, Geographic Information System

Martines, M. , Toppa, R. , Ferreira, R. , Cavagis, A. , Kawakubo, F. and Morato, R. (2017) Spatial Analysis to Identify Urban Areas with Higher Potential for Social Investment. Journal of Geographic Information System, 9, 591-603. doi: 10.4236/jgis.2017.95037.