• Regionalization and Regional Analysis

• Ecosystems analysis, conservation and monitoring;
• Surface and climatic dynamics of humid and semi-arid tropical natural landscapes;
• Territorial development dynamics and regionalizations;
• Production and dynamics of metropolitan spaces and intermediate cities;
• Agrarian space, social movements, and public policies;
• Education, culture, politics and innovation in the contemporary production of space.

Group Name: Study Group of the Brazilian Northeast Quaternary (GEQUA)/LABORATORY OF GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE QUATERNARY

Founded: 2003

Group Leaders: Antonio Carlos de Barros Correa - dbiase2001@terra.com.br and Danielle Gomes da Silva – dannyavlis@yahoo.com.br

Operational Areas: Environmental Cartography; Geomorphological Cartography; Geochronology of the Continental Northeast Quaternary; Geology of the Coastal Quaternary of the Northeast; Quaternary Geomorphology Applied to Environmental Studies; Geomorphology of the Continental Northeast Quaternary; Paleontology, Paleoecology and Quaternary Paleoclimatology in the Continental Northeast; Pedology and Morphogenesis.

Repercussions of the studies: The goal of the Quaternary Study Group in the Brazilian Northeast is to establish a research routine of quaternary dynamics in the landscape of the Brazilian Northeast based on the studies into the production of quaternary sediments and the genesis of the modellers, with an emphasis on the semi-arid domain. The Group seeks to add new geotechnologies to the studies of the Quaternary that allow for an accurate understanding the events that led to the formation of the landform and its correlative deposits. The studies are directed towards elucidating the paleogeographic scenes associated with the environmental changes of the NE Quaternary. This will also give a more realistic understanding of the functioning of the terrestrial surface systems. Additionally, the GEQUA seeks to establish empirical research practices, using up-to-date techniques with state of the art development within the subjects involved in geomorphology, sedimentology, pedology, palaeontology, geoarcheology and geochronology. GEQUA's studies are focused on analysing the constituent materials of surface formations, their spatial distribution, their physicochemical characteristics, their fossiliferous, geoarchaeological and chronological contents. GEQUA research prioritises the empirical investigation mediated by contemporary instrumentation and counts on the support of the equipment located at UFPE's Laboratory of Applied Physical Geography, of which the Group is a member. The Group strives to be a hub that disseminates new theoretical-methodological approaches in geosciences, as well as diffusing geoenvironmental knowledge that can be used for the direct benefit of the communities found in its research areas.

URL: https://www.ufpe.br/gequa/

 

Group Name: Study Group on Tropical Climatology and Extreme Events (Tropoclima)

Founded: 2010

Group Leaders: Ranyére Silva Nóbrega – ranyere.nobrega@ufpe.br

Operational areas: Analysis of extreme climatic indices and NEB applications; Climatology of extreme weather events in the NEB; Urban Climatology; Desertification;

Extreme events of precipitation and its influence on NEB landscape; Impacts of extreme weather events on water resources; Energetic interaction of the atmosphere and extreme events of rainfall.

Repercussions of the studies: The idea for creating the group was based on the assumption that most of the natural disasters occurring in Brazil are related to the dynamics of the atmosphere. With that in mind, the aim of Tropoclima is to investigate the climatic systems and the occurrence of extreme events, focusing on the interaction between the oceanic atmosphere and the energy of the atmosphere. Such research activities are carried out using observational, remote sensing and numerical weather and climate forecast models, as well as field activities with data collection, with the purpose of generating expertise on the subsidised research to make decisions on short, medium and long-term public policies. Extreme phenomena related to the atmosphere cannot be avoided and, because of this, we understand that comprehending dynamic climate processes together with geographic analyses of the Northeast region using current technologies can mitigate the impacts caused.

URL:https://www.ufpe.br/tropoclima/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=305&Itemid=175

 

Group Name: BIOMA - Study Group on Biogeography and Environment

Founded: 2010

Group Leaders: Maria Fernanda Abrantes Torres - daetorres@hotmail.com

Operational areas: Temporal-spatial analysis of the use and land use in Conservation Units; Structural and functional analysis of mangrove vegetation; Characterization and distribution of apicuns (salt marshes); Environmental Degradation in Ecosystems; Distribution of Ecosystems; Environmental education; Fragmentation of ecosystems.

Repercussions of the studies: BIOMA – The Study Group on Biogeography and Environment - has been developing research on the Mangrove, Atlantic Forest and Caatinga biomes that are included in Conservation Units from the State of Pernambuco, regarding geographic distribution, fragmentation, degradation, space-time analysis of the use and  land use, functions and services, socio-environmental aspects and structural analysis of vegetation and environmental education. The results derived from the studies developed by the group have supplied relevant information, generating data that provide the scientific basis for the handling, management and environmental monitoring of major ecosystems in Pernambuco, serving as support for environmental policies in Conservation Units. With respect to scientific production, the projects undertaken by the group have enabled monographs, dissertations and theses to be prepared, resulting in more publications being published in congresses and specialised magazines, along with these results being presented at national and international congresses in the operational areas of the group. Regarding scientific and technological innovation, the research topics proposed by the group will help to maintain and develop new research at UFPE, a centre of excellence in Geographical Sciences in the Brazilian Northeast. The scientific importance of the research topics developed by the group is based on the new systematic approach to investigate the ecological interactions in environmental protection areas.

URL: http://biomaufpe.blogspot.com.br/

 

Group Name: Regional Dynamics and History of Geography

Founded: 1989

Group Leaders: Nilson Cortez Crocia de Barros - nccrocia@ufpe.br

Operational areas: Regional dynamics; Population; History of Geography.

Repercussions of the studies: Dozens of guidelines from Monographs, Dissertations and Theses. Dozens of publications and presentations of studies in meetings on the field. Training of personnel (research and education in undergraduate and graduate studies). Outreach of effects to other institutions. Regional, national and international interactions.

 

Group Name: Geographic Education, School Culture and Innovation (GPECI)

Funded: 2012

Group Leaders: Francisco Kennedy Silva dos Santos - kennedyufpe@gmail.com

Operational areas: Curriculum, methodologies and didactic resources for education in Geography; Didactics, professor training and the professionalization of teaching staff; Education, culture and innovation in contemporary space production; Geotechnology and Educating-Learning; Teaching profession, school culture and geographical learning; School practices and knowledge of the school space; Representations and languages in the teaching of Geography.

Repercussions of the studies: The Research Group on Geographic Education, School Culture and Innovation (GPECI) offers to conduct a series of comparative, critical and propositional studies based on the concepts of education, culture and innovation in contemporary spaces, emphasising the central issues associated with socio-spatial dynamics and their interfaces. The Group is a part of the Geographical Teaching and Vocational Training Laboratory (LEGEP) in the DCG/UFPE and presents studies and research that seek to reflect and/or construct the necessary theoretical and methodological tools for systematic dissemination of the knowledge linked to the field of geographic knowledge at different levels of education. Likewise, the Research Group will approach studies interested in reflecting on the trends developed by the practical experiences of teaching of geography, on the theoretical references guiding these practices, and on the relation of Geography as a subject in school.

URL: https://www.ufpe.br/legep/ 

 

Group Name: Research Group on Innovation, Technology and Territory - GRITT

Founded: 2004

Group Leaders: Ana Cristina de Almeida Fernandes - anacf@ufpe.br and Bertrand Roger Guillaume Cozic - cozicbertrand@gmail.com

Operational areas: Dynamics of Innovation, Territory and Health; Changes and continuities in the patterns of urban-regional specialisation; Public policies of CT&I, measurement and analysis of knowledge flows; Territory and Innovation: Theoretical and Conceptual Aspects; Territory, Knowledge and Democracy.

Repercussions of the studies: The group was created to gather researchers from a variety of backgrounds that have developed teaching, research and extension activities in the field of innovation, with a particular emphasis on their spatial dimension. GRITT's activities led to the formation of a research area in 2004 in UFPE's Postgraduate Program in Geography (PPGGeo), which has received a variety of students for scientific initiation, master's and doctorate. GRITT has also worked on projects conducted in partnership with researchers from other research institutions in Brazil and abroad, in addition to cooperating with public and private organisations on analysis and management of technological innovation. Among the projects deployed by GRITT are "Potentials and limitations for the development of technology-based companies in Brazil", the "Challenges Project for the Integrated Management of Micro and Small Businesses", in partnership with IPEG, the "Support Study by UFPE to Consolidate Parqtel" (FINEP and FACEPE), "CT&I demands in the field of health: technology-based companies, drugs and strategic inputs" (Ministry of Health), the "The Medical Hub of Recife: Value Chain, Challenges and Opportunities" study (FINEP), the preparation of the "Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of the State of Pernambuco", the (SECTMA), the "Inova-Northeast Study" (CGEE), and the "Typology of Brazilian Cities" (Ministry of Cities). GRITT is also integrated with the National Institute of Science and Technology in Pharmaceutical Innovation-INCT, and the Research Network on University-Company Interaction in Brazil. The results of the scientific researches have been presented at academic events and published in scientific journals and other publications. The technical projects have contributed to the management of C&T in public and private organisations and provided new objectives for scientific research. As of 2010, GRITT is organising the Symposium on the Geography of Knowledge and Innovation.

URL: https://www.ufpe.br/gritt/  

 

Group Name: LECgeo - Laboratory for Studies on Space, Culture and Politics

Founded: 2008

Group Leaders: Caio Augusto Amorim Maciel - camorim3@terra.com.br

Operational Areas: Current conflicts and territorial struggles in Brazil: questioning the development of capital and making resistance visible; Development and Territorial Planning in São Francisco; Cultural landscapes, public spaces and territorial identities in Recife: geosymbols, spatial practices and citizenship; Cultural landscapes and regional identities in the Brazilian Northeast; Semi-Arid Latin American: territorialities of the paradigms in coexistence and adaptation.

Repercussions of the studies: It is hoped that the research topics in Cultural and Political Geography, currently dispersed at Geography-UFPE, will gain considerable momentum and foster the exchange between related departments and national and international institutions interested in the same issues. LECgeo not only operates as a research laboratory, but also as an agent in the spheres of teaching and outreach, promoting courses, lectures, fieldwork and stimulating participation by UFPE teaching staff and students in scientific and outreach events, contributing to a greater insertion on the part of the university in this topic - a topic that is gaining more and more importance in the academic environment and in society: the relations between culture, space and politics. For this, periodic seminars and activities will be held in partnership with social organisations. Likewise, the laboratory activity contributes to the curricular modernization of the undergraduate courses, as well as it offers support for the associated grad students.

URL: https://www.ufpe.br/lecgeo/

 

Group Name: LEPEC - Laboratory for Studies and Research on Agrarian Space and Peasantry.

Founded: 2011

Group Leaders: Cláudio Ubiratan Gonçalves - biragrario@gmail.com

Operational areas: Expressions and materiality of territorial conflicts and social subjects and field knowledge; Social Movements, counter-hegemonic resistance actions and processes; Peasant, Indigenous and traditional peoples' territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Repercussions  of the studies: LEPEC arose from the Centre for the Study of Agrarian Space, Peasantry and Agroecology, which was created in 2011 and was part of LECgeo until 2015. The consolidation of NEACA as a centre for studies and research is of a critical-reflexive nature along with social movements, societal forums and collectives unfolded in the creation of a laboratory geared towards agrarian and socio-territorial studies. The laboratory develops academic and didactic/pedagogical activities that facilitate an exchange of knowledge and the continuing education of undergraduate students, postgraduates and professors. Some of its attributions include: to question the relevance of the use of theory and method; to discuss peasant family agriculture, its socio-political organization and its ancestral knowledge of care for nature; To understand the impacts of the State and capital activities on the agrarian space and their forms of struggle and resistance; To deal with issues pertaining to the genesis of the agrarian conflict.

URL: https://www.ufpe.br/lepec/

 

Group Name: MOVIEX

Founded: 2008

Group Leaders: Alcindo José de Sá - alcindo@ufpe.br

Operational areas: Geography and Public Security.

Repercussions of the studies: This group has been working on the issue of urban violence in the city of Recife and its reflections on spatial morphologies. Books on this subject, like ("Incarcerated Brazil, from internal prisons to external pressures to jails: a Geography of Fear" and "For a Geography without Public or Private Prisons"), monographs, dissertations and numerous articles in periodicals have already been published. We also held the First International Symposium on the Geography of Violence and Fear. We seek to bring the issue of violence, its different origins and nuances, as well as its refutation in the territorial construction and dynamics to light, geared towards the possibility of building a more supportive and civilised world.

 

Group Name: PERNAMBUCO OBSERVATORY OF PUBLIC POLICIES AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES

Founded: 1998

Group Leaders: Jan Bitoun - bitounjan@gmail.com

Operational areas: Geografia Humana e Organização do Espaço; Habitação de Interesse Social; Legislação Urbana; Políticas Públicas Urbanas; Sistema de Informações Georeferenciadas.

Repercussions of the studies: The Pernambuco Observatory of Public Policies and Socio-Environmental Practices, located at UFPE's Graduate Program in Geography, was created in 1998 through a cooperation constructed by university students and social activists from the Non-Governmental Organization FASE-Solidariedade e Educação, seeking to bring together the academic production of the needs for social action. In 2000, the PE Observatory was linked to a wide network located in several metropolitan agglomerations in the country - The Metropolis Observatory Network, coordinated by the Institute of Research and Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, IPPUR/UFRJ. In 2002, this cooperation network was expanded at the local level with the incorporation of the Postgraduate Program in Urban Development, linked to the UFPE Department of Architecture and Urbanism, which is now a part of the PE Observatory. At the local level, the PE Observatory undertakes research, training, consultancy; participates in seminars, forums; and collaborates with the social action agendas of the FASE-PE. Some of the areas include research related to housing policies of social interest and urban and metropolitan planning practices aimed at reducing social and environmental inequalities. At the national level, it participates in comparative research on the country's metropolitan regions within the scope of the "Metropolis Observatory: Social Cohesion and Democratic Governance" project, funded by CNPq/ National Institute of Science and Technology - INCT.

URL:http://www.observatoriodasmetropoles.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=188

 

Group Name: Study Group for Education, Research and Practices in Agroecology and Geography - NEPPAG Ayni.

Founded: 2014

Group Leaders: Mônica Cox de Britto Pereira - coxmonica@gmail.com

Operational areas: Agroecology, Environmental Epistemology, Society-Nature, Political Ecology, Territorial Socio-Environmental Conflicts, Conservation Units, Social Movements, Extension, Territorial and Environmental Planning.

Repercussions  of the studies: The Study Group for Education, Research and Practices in Agroecology and Geography was founded in 2014. It is linked to the academic and didactic-pedagogical activities of the leader since coordinator from the UFF/Department Geography. The group composes undergraduate, graduate students focused on research, studies and practices in Agroecology, coupled with social movements. Its objectives are: to integrate study / research / extension; To know agro-ecological experiences, to identify territorial socio-environmental conflicts and to reflect alternatives to the current demands of society in relation to nature (dimensions of the reproduction of life) and with society in the context of Latin America; To enable the debate, study and promotion of agroecology inside and outside the university; Ensure the full training of undergraduate and postgraduate students; To exercise the dialogue of knowledge between university and urban and rural communities especially of peasant and traditional family base. It has lines of action and research: 1) construction of agroecological knowledge (theories, knowledge and practices); 2) political ecology, social movements, socio-environmental territorial conflicts, resistance in the countryside and in the city, struggle for rights and territories of the rural, forest and water peoples: peasantry, indigenous peoples and traditional communities; 3) emancipatory processes and resistance of Women and Youth; 4) social construction of markets, supply and consumption ethical, solidarity and ecological.

 

Group Name: Geography and Integration in South America Observatory: socio-territorial demography, networks and social innovation.

Founded: 2013

Group Leaders: Nilo Américo Rodrigues Lima de Almeida (LIMA, Nilo Américo) - nilolimanet@gmail.com James Humberto Zomighani Junior - james.junior@unila.edu.br

Operational areas: Use and the limitations of the theories of International Relations and International Public Policy; the scale of work focused on the contribution and strengthening of Citizen Integration and Democracy in South America, Mercosur Social (institucional) and demographic power. Based on Critical Social Theory: three dimensions of Geographical Solidarity, organic (territorial proximity and co-presence), organizational (global order) and institutional (capacity for cohesion and social coercion; coercive capacity of international norms and treaties); and Theory of Uses of the Territory on Knowledge Economy,  Creative Economy, Knowledge Networks. The innovate dimension on the perspective of Knowledge Curation, taking as a resource available knowledge technologies.

Repercussions  of the studies: Guidelines of Monographs, Dissertations and Theses. Publications and presentations of studies in meetings and courses. Staff training (research and education in undergraduate and postgraduate studies). Participation in forums and seminars of interest in the themes of Integration of South America, Global South, Brazilian Foreign Policy.

 

Group Name: Lichen: bioactive compounds and environmental monitoring.

Founded: 1985

Group Leaders: Eugênia Cristina Gonçalves Pereira - verticillaris@gmail.com

Operational Areas: Biogeography, Environmental studies, Biological monitoring of air pollution, Biodiversity, Bioprospecting, Bio-remediation of degraded soils.

Repercussions of the studies: The group focuses studies on environmental problems, using organisms as monitors and/or to remediate degraded soils, as well as, explore the biodiversity and biotechnological potential of plants and lichens. The studies are both conducted both in humid and semi-arid environments, searching for novel methods and patents that solve those problems, with emphasis to semi-arid region of Brazilian Northeast. The group uses the Environmental Geography Laboratory (LAGEAM), linked to the Nucleus of Environmental Studies (NEMA), at Geographical Sciences Department, and Natural Products Laboratory, at Biochemistry Department, both of UFPE. Besides lichen studies, the group also develops studies with plants and environmental impact by human action. The laboratories have physical structure and equipment for all proposed studies, as well as financial support for projects. The group interacts with international groups of Spain, Chile, Portugal, and Research Institutes as Brazilian Nuclear Energy Center and Botanical Garden of São Paulo, with publications in international journals of high impact factor as CATENA, PlosOne, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, among others.

E-Books

• GEOCULTURA POLÍTICA PÓS-MODERNA: Limites e Fronteiras em Questão 
• Anais do I Workshop de Geomorfologia e Geoarqueologia do Nordeste

Revistas 

• Revista de Geografia
• Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais