Urban form and socio-spatial segregation in Santa Catarina Brazilian Cities

Studying socio-spatial segregation is important to analyze internal and external urban processes, particularly in Brazilian and Latin American cities, where socioeconomic inequalities are acute and closely related to aspects of the urban form. Socio-spatial segregation is considered here as a process in which the urban form and more general spatial conditions restrict contacts between high-and low-income groups. We investigate socioeconomic urban segregation in three prominent cities in Santa Catarina State, namely Florianopolis, Joinville and Blumenau, each with distinct population sizes, urban growth stages and differ considerably in urban morphology. Based on geotechnologies and spatial analyses, we calculate local geo-segregation indices, as delineated by Feitosa et al (2007), based on classical measures of local quotient, dissimilarity, exposure and isolation. These spatial indices of urban segregation are able to analyze segregation patterns at urban form by the numeric dimensions of evenness/clustering and exposure/isolation (Reardon and O'Sullivan, 2004) and we discuss then critically from a morphological perspective as a way to contribute to theoretic formulations in Brazilian and other contexts characterized by geo-segregation, highlighting how and to what extent they are able to capture relevant aspects of the urban form, and, conversely, how the latter may be used to improve traditional zone-based indices. This work provides a better understanding of classic segregation indices and their
differences and similarities, while discussing relevant contemporary issues on urban form and socio-spatial patterns emergence.