Geospatial evolution of airport vicinities over time: evidence from Brazil

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between urban occupation and the location of transport infrastructure to identify patterns in urbanization of cities based on their main airports. For this analysis, data from the Global Artificial Impervious Area, spanning from 1985 to 2018, was utilized for the seventeen major Brazilian airports in terms of passenger movement to examine the built-up areas around airports. The methodology employs three econometric models that compare urban impervious surface growth in concentric 1-km rings around airports (up to 20 km) with growth patterns in the immediate urban region, airport-city access corridors, and surrounding areas. This spatial segmentation approach, combined with longitudinal regression analysis, enables the quantification of distance-dependent urbanization effects while controlling for broader metropolitan expansion dynamics. The analysis demonstrates that built-up areas near airports experienced accelerated growth, with impervious surface expansion in airport influence regions occurring 1.21 to 82.27 times faster than in their broader urban regions. While areas within 5 km of airports showed the most pronounced urbanization, the models cannot definitively isolate whether this pattern results from airport proximity or broader city dynamics, as airports are inherently integrated within urban systems.