The historical and geographical reconstitution of the Goiáses trail, The historical and geographical reconstitution of the Goiáses trail, which was part of the territorial integration strategic view drawn by the Portuguese in the XVIII century, is the Ph.D. thesis subject of Antonio da Costa Santos in the Urban and Architecture College-FAU of the University of São Paulo-USP.
A team of researches and technicians of NMA, under Dr. Evaristo E. de Miranda, coordination is aiding this project - with the use of satellite images and geographic information systems - in its cartographic aspects related to principles of landscape ecology. This work is developed under the cooperation between USP and Embrapa and specially, between FAU and NMA.
Consolidated by the General captain and Governor of the São Paulo Flagship (1765-1775), Antonio Luis Souza Bueno Botelho Mourão, Morgado de Mateus, has arrived in Brazil with many cartographers. The estrada was conceived and drawn in a way to integrate a group of roads constructed in the meridian way, linking the Prata river mouth to São Paulo, São Paulo to Goiás and the Central Plateau to Belem. The proposed system obeyed a series of geographical, political and strategic criteria, as it's shown by the historical documentation available and gathered by the student. According to the available written and cartographic information, the reconstitution of the original trail is not easy. The understanding of the historical origin of a great number of cities and towns in São Paulo State is linked to this trail.
It is a challenge to reconstitute this trail that may be done with the aid of modern geoprocessing techniques, remote sensing and ecological modeling. This requires a multidisciplinary team, extremely interactive and severe, based on hypothesis, which can be checked in the field and cartographically, through ecological and environmental historical models.
