Spatial segregation in floodplain: An approach to correlate physical and human dimensions for urban planning

The aim of this study was to correlate an index of socioeconomic vulnerability with land use and occupation patterns, to investigate spatial segregation in an urban floodplain of a medium-sized city from Brazil, motivated by the following issue: could the floodplain, a risk area, be occupied by different socioeconomic classes and, even so, present a spatial segregation framework? To answer this question, an official indicator of socioeconomic vulnerability has been analyzed, concomitantly with patterns of land use and occupation in a GIS environment, through spatial statistics. Results showed that all classes of socioeconomic vulnerability occur in the floodplain, however, when land use and occupation patterns are overlaid, a programmed spatial segregation is revealed: the low and very low vulnerability areas are mainly for public usages, in form of roads, squares, gardens, bike paths, train stations etc. Conversely, areas of high and very high vulnerability are destined for housing estates, even in sectors under flooding risk, thus revealing a segregation induced by public power. Therefore, an integrated and joint analysis of socioeconomic vulnerability indicators and land use and occupation patterns should be made to effectively understand forms of spatial segregation aiming at a sustainable urban planning. •Spatial analysis approaches for understanding patterns of segregation in a floodplain•Remote sensing, spatial statistics and use of GIS environment for analyzing segregation•This work brings a review on conceptions of spatial segregation in the last decades.•Results from this study revealed a spatial segregation induced by public power.•Analyzing land use jointly with socioeconomics is pivotal to understand segregation.