A sustentabilidade urbana na Amazônia: estudo bibliométrico da produção dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais da Região Norte do Brasil

Abstract

The increase in the world's urban population observed in recent decades has been drawing the attention of politicians and academic to the theme of urbanization of politicians, who started to include the subject in their agendas and to develop more research on the subject. Considering the disciplinary and thematic diversity involved in urban studies, this research has been developed to identify trends in world, national (Brazil) and regional (North region of Brazil) studies about urban sustainability. The theme of Urban Sustainability is extremely important for the North region of Brazil because there is an ongoing process of intense urban development and expansion. Furthermore, the region is home to one of the largest tropical forests in the world, which provides important ecosystem services not only for the local community, but for the whole global population. The main objective of this research was to understand how the Master´s and PhD´s programs in Environmental Sciences of Universities located in the North region have been studying the theme of Urban Sustainability in their researches between 2009 and 2018. To do so, we performed a bibliometric analysis of the dissertations and the theses defended in these programs between 2009 and 2018. This method uses visual and quantitative analysis to summarize trends in selected research fields. Additionally, we analyzed the scientific papers published in national and international journals in order to compare the results with both national and international scenarios. The results show that the theme was not predominant among the analyzed dissertations and theses, and that the term was not popular among the researchers. On the other hand, many researchers have addressed the topic in their research to portray the socio-environmental problems in the region's cities. Also, we found out that there are differences between the hot topics among the regional researchers and the national and foreign researchers.