IBGE

Official Territorial Area

Introduction
The values of areas available in Brazil, States and Municipalities are those according to the territorial setting valid on January, 1st, 2001, present in the Resolution of IBGE Presidency nº 5 (R.PR-5/02) of October, 10, 2002, published in Diário Oficial da União on October, 11, 2002.

The new value for the Brazilian territorial area was calculated again aiming at avoiding that the graphical deformation could interfere on the result. The analytical calculus was applied from more advanced computational platforms, besides projection systems more suitable to the calculus of territorial areas. This operation was individually carried out due to the municipalities characteristics, including their territorial extensions which vary from 3 to 150.000 km². The parameters used for each one of the 5,560 municipalities can be found in the matadata system of municipal mapping.

The result obtained in Census 2000 presented important improvement in the methodology of processes for the calculus of area, in the identification and cartographic representation of State and Municipal polygons per substitution and updating of cartographic bases, portraying the changes imposed by legal instruments.

In these circumstances, the value of 8,514,876.599 km² was obtained for the area of Brazil, which corresponds to an increment about 0.008% of the value published in the Preliminary Synopsis of Census 2000.

In these values of areas for Brazil, States and Municipalities in R.PR-5/02, some basic topics should be highlighted:
  - the areas of the islands of Trindade and Martins Vaz, are incorporated to the municipality of Vitória (ES) as municipal law;
  - in Rio de Janeiro, the calculus for the area of the municipalities of Carapebus, Conceição de Macabu and Macaé, followed orientations resulting from judicial decision;
  - in Rio Grande do Sul, the areas relative to Lagoas dos Patos and Mirim, were respectively incorporated to the area of the State according to State Constitution from 1988;
  - still, in relation to Rio Grande do Sul, it is important to explain that the municipality of Pinto Bandeira, due to Medida Cautelar, which provisionally suspended Law n° 11.375/9 which created the referenced municipality, had its area (105.156 km²) aggregated to the municipality of Bento Gonçalves.

Update
The technological innovation observed in the last 60 years provided a general improvement of processes of digital acquisition of geographical information. The successive changes and adjustment of methodology for the calculus of Brazilian territorial areas, aimed at showing the reality of the national territory, concerning its cartographic configuration.

Continuing such purpose, the elaboration of new editions of topographic bases of systematic mapping and the implementation of a permanent project of updates of the existing mapping, constitute fundamental actions to apply new methodologies for the calculus of areas.

The values for the areas of surfaces of the States and Municipalities are periodically updated in relation to the dynamics of the Brazilian Territorial Division, due to changes of legal nature, judicial or cartographic representation.