The effects of the construction of the bioceanic road corridor on the territorial planning of the city of Porto Murtinho, Brazil

Abstract

South American countries built an integration agenda that resulted in the Union of South American Nations. After the discontinuation of this agenda, the Latin American Integration Route (LAIR) project became an important sub-regional geopolitical link. By connecting the two South American ocean coasts, the LAIR project will facilitate logistical access from the Midwest region of Brazil to the Pacific basin and will intensify trade, investment and people flows on a subcontinental scale. In the border town of Porto Murtinho, Brazil, RILA has been transforming urban land uses, due to the attraction of investments and the expectation of local development. Concomitantly with the positive socioeconomic projections, this Bioceanic Road Corridor has triggered deleterious effects. In the real estate segment, the increase in demand, in an urban perimeter limited by river dikes, has raised the value of properties. The repulsion of poor families to areas beyond the urban perimeter, which are susceptible to flooding, and to the Paraguayan city of Carmelo Peralta, is one of the consequences of this process.