Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - Territory and Environment - Statistics by Hydrographic Macroregions

Environmental statistics are a fundamental input to explain interactions between society, economy and nature, as they allow analysis about the dynamics and uses of ecosystems, the effects of human activity in physical and biological means and about the impacts resulting from varied forms of land use and occupation, thus providing an integrated view of the environment, in its multiple dimensions.

With the release of this fact sheet, the IBGE presents statistics covering a physical and biotic characterization of the 12 Hydrographic Macroregions in Brazil (MacroRHs), based on data on Geology, Geomorphology, Pedology, Vegetation, Land Use and Cover, as well as on the distribution of biomes and of the resident population in these areas, with information produced by the Institute itself. By integrating environmental and population data of these Macroregions, the statistics presented herein go beyond traditional approaches, often associated with political-administrative divisions of a territory, and represent qualitative advance in the growing production and use of information by territorial division in association with nature systems.

The publication, richly illustrated with cartograms, tables, and graphs, analyzes MacroRHs from three different perspectives: territorial and demographic dimensions; environmental diversity, focused on the participation of biomes and specific physiographic aspects of these subdivisions, such as the distribution of structural provinces, relief compartments, types of soil and phytoecological regions and dynamics of land use. The technical notes describe the man operational procedures adopted in the study and list methodological considerations. 

This set of information is also available for consultation on the IBGE website, with complete tables and the sources of information for this study.