Na região Nordeste do Brasil existe uma gama de aglomerações urbanas, dentre as quais se destaca a conurbação urbana, conhecida como Crajubar, localizada na Região Metropolitana do Cariri (RMC), no sul do Ceará, onde existe uma percepção de ausência de limites urbanos entre os três municípios: Crato, Juazeiro do Norte e Barbalha. Assim, este trabalho busca compreender a dinâmica da expansão do Crajubar, por meio de técnicas de Geoprocessamento. Para tanto, utilizou-se arquivos vetoriais da delimitação territorial com mancha urbana do ano de 2005 e imagens orbitais dos satélites GeoEye do ano de 2018. Para o processamento dos dados foi utilizado o software QGIS. O Google Earth foi usado para identificar estabelecimentos responsáveis por atraírem crescimento urbano para o seu entorno, ainda foram utilizadas informações oficiais de crescimento populacional e informações econômicas geradas pelos órgãos oficiais. Como resultados, geraram-se arquivos vetoriais com duas manchas urbanas da região, sendo uma de 2005 e outra de 2018, as quais apresentam a conurbação dos três municípios para as duas situações. A partir do mapa gerado, construiu-se o entendimento dos fatores que impulsionam a expansão espacial urbana do Crajubar, tais como serviços públicos nas áreas de infraestrutura, saúde e educação. Evaluation of expansion of Crajubar urban agglomerate using geomatics A B S T R A C TIn the Northeast region of Brazil there is a range of urban agglomerations, among which the urban conurbation known as Crajubar. It is located in the metropolitan area of Cariri (MAC), in the south of Ceará, where there is a perception of the absence of urban boundaries between the three towns: Crato, Juazeiro do Norte and Barbalha. This work tries to understand the dynamics of the expansion of Crajubar, using Geoprocessing techniques. It was used shapefiles of the territorial delimitation with urban area of the year of 2005 and GeoEye satellites images of the year of 2018. The QGIS software was used for data processing. The Google Earth was used to identify companies and institutions responsible for attracting urban growth for the around their area, official information on population growth and economic information generated by government institutions was also used. As a result, shapefiles were generated with two urban areas in the region, one of area in 2005 and another area in 2018, where each one presents the conurbation of the three towns for both situations. From the generated map, the understanding of the factors that have influenced the urban spatial expansion of Crajubar was constructed, such as public services of infrastructure, health and education.Keywords: Urbanization, Population Growth, Geoprocessing.

The urbanization process of the majority of the Brazilian cities has occurred without appropriate planning that would consider the importance of environmental components. Nevertheless, it is widely known that the quality of urban life depends on a variety of factors, such as infrastructure, socioeconomic development and environment related aspects. With regard to these last factors, public green areas are essential for the maintenance of public welfare and, among these places, the public squares function as social interactive and leisure options for citizens. Due to their beauty, the squares contribute to urban ornamentation and usually host civic or religious events. Thereby, this study aimed to characterization the social and environmental role played by the public squares in the municipality of Crato-CE.  As a methodological approach, bibliographic researches, as well as, the application of 50 questionnaires have provided the necessary information. The results suggest that there is a diversification of the squares frequenters at different times of the day, in addition to a variety of reasons that influence people to stay at or pass by these places. It was perceived that being at squares stimulates positive feelings, as the feeling of happiness described by 46% of the interviewers, freedom experienced by 30% and contact with nature by 15%.  Therefore, it is undoubtedly possible to emphasize the importance of public squares for the municipality and the wellbeing of its citizens.