Affected by environmental impacts and locational theories: the Palmatuba collapse – Babaçulândia / TO

Abstract

In 2011, the community of coconut-breaking women from the village of Palmatuba, which was located north of the state of Tocantins, came to its collapse. The cause of its disappearance is due to the flood of the Tocantins river with the hydroelectric dam of Estreito. The question that arises in the present work is whether locational theories could contribute to the reversal of impacts of this magnitude, offering a theoretical methodological tool capable of reallocating the affected population avoiding its disappearance and diminishing impacts to the local culture. To do so, the research relied on the locational concepts of mother settlement, Thunen rings and central locality theory together with the concept of landscape units and geographic information systems to generate a powerful tool and discuss the problem of resettlement of minorities affected by major environmental impacts