Urban morphological analysis : contributions of the historic-geographic approach associated with the creation of a multilayers database

The historical-geographical approach emerged from the works of German geographer M.R.G. Conzen and his studies centered on the transformation and permanence of the urban forms. The Conzenian thought structures its morphological analysis on two axioms: [1] the tripartite vision, understood as the systematic and hierarchized composition of the urban form; [2] a periodization of the forms in morphological periods, that is, a temporal organization of the historical and evolutionary periods. In this method, the association of the tripartite vision, in each morphological period, leads to the comprehension of the evolution of the urban landscape (PEREIRA, COSTA et al., 2013). In recent studies regarding urban morphology, the relevance of the historical-geographical approach of the Conzenian School is observed, in the inter national debate and in the increasing influence of its concepts in the urban planning field (WHITEHAND, 2007). However, according to Whitehand (2007), the urban administration of a number of countries limits their historical approach to the architectural scale. As a result, the urban historical process and its relation to the geographic insertion are little explored: “There is little sense of how these relate to one another and are part of a process of change: awareness of historical-geographical processes is poorly developed (WHITEHAND, 2007, p4). Taking this need into account, researchers have adopted the GIS technology (Geographic Information System) as an interdisciplinary analysis tool: The Historical GIS. According to historian-geographer Anne Kelly Knowles, Historical GIS provides the tools to combine history and geography to study patterns of change over space and time (KNOWLES, 2002). In the presented framework, the objective is to contribute to the methodology of the historical-morphological analysis. Considering the increasing Conzenian influence in urban planning (WHITEHAND, 2007), a method for reading the landscape is proposed, which through the Historical GIS, allows the comprehension of the dynamics of the transformation of the territory from the formation period to its current configuration, being able, subsequently, to offer subsidies to the local urban administration. As an object of study, the work covered the district scale, in accordance with its period of one year, and prioritized the districts whose database was incomplete or non-existent. In this context, it chose Sousas, one of six districts of the municipality of Campinas, in the State of São Paulo, located in the east and at a distance of approximately 10km from the city center