Potenciais impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais na ativação de trem turístico na Zona da Mata Mineira

Abstract

According to the Ministry of Tourism (2013), among the various types of tourism in Brazil, many are directly linked to the culture of rail transportation, using the train as a means of locomotion between localities and also as cultural heritage. The preservation of rail transport also leads to actions for the revitalization of historical spaces and buildings because both connect in favor of the rescue of past memory, making us observe the present and helping to plan the future. Considering the hypothesis of the activation of a railway line in a given region, we must predict what possible impacts will be caused to ensure a balanced regional development, guided by the basic sustainability guidelines. This work intends to visualize the possibility of establishing a tourist train in the region of Zona da Mata Mineira, in the Juiz de Fora microregion, comprising the socioeconomic characteristics of the towns involved in the activation of a possible new railway line. It also foresees the potential socioeconomic and environmental impacts in the region, creating another hypothesis of how multimodal a railway structure could develop in the long term. Through a bibliographical review focused on the railroad sector in Brazil, the current panorama of the railways in the country as well as the current operant tourist trains are elucidated. In a second moment of the research, the socioeconomic data collection of the cities involved in the spatial analysis of the research and how the railway culture is currently present in them, help to suggest the route of the new train based, also, on urbanistic concepts applied, to be able to visualize the possible impacts that can be caused in the region.