Vale do Rio Doce: potencialidades de desenvolvimento e carências apresentadas pelos municípios da região através de uma aplicação de análise fatorial

Abstract

The objective of this work is to identify the main developmental potentialities and deficiencies existing in the the Minas Gerais cities located in the Vale do Rio Doce region, which was affected by the rupture of the ore tailings dam at Samarco in November 2015. The used data refer to a period before the disaster, but the main objective is to know the characteristics of the affected region, since many efforts and resources will be directed to the territory in the coming years. Three factors were extracted from the Factor Analysis (multivariate statistics), and they were transformed into three potential development indexes: Industrial / Commercial, Agricultural and Urban / Social. For the Index of Development of Industry and Commerce was identified the low potential of the cities of the region, only four cities stood out with Very High and High potential. The Index of Agricultural Development indicated a better potential in the region, showing a greater vocation of this activity. In the Urban and Social aspect, the Vale do Rio Doce had the best performance of the three indexes, but still demonstrate a considerable number of cities with low indicator. These results showed a heterogeneity among the cities of Vale do Rio Doce, and pointed out great developmental potential in each of the analyzed areas. The specificities of each city were also analyzed. From this, the process of public planning and spending and any investment of private capital should be based on more detailed information about the region and its cities.