Socioeconomic dimensions, migration, and deforestation: An integrated model of territorial organization for the Brazilian Amazon Ricardo Alexandrino Garcia a,b, * , Britaldo Silveira Soares-Filho a,c , Diana Oya Sawyer a a Center for Regional Development and Planning (Cedeplar), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, Av. Anto ˆnio Carlos, 6627, 31270-900 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil b Department of Geography, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, Av. Anto ˆnio Carlos, 6627, 31270-900 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil c Center for Remote Sensing (CSR) and Department of Cartography, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, Av. Anto ˆnio Carlos, 6627, 31270-900 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil Received 13 February 2006; received in revised form 2 August 2006; accepted 12 August 2006 Abstract The territory organization of the Brazilian Amazon, understood as a socioeconomic network of municipalities, reflects the diversity of human settlements and their potentials for environmental changes, especially deforestation. This paper characterizes the urban network in the Brazilian Amazon through a model that integrates the levels of socioeconomic organization of municipalities and their interrelationships, as determined through migratory movements. The model of territorial organization combines five components: (i) the hierarchy of central places (poles) established by the concentration of urban specialized services, (ii) the geographical distance between central poles and other centers, (iii) the poles’ populations, (iv) the migratory movements among them, and (v) a socioeconomic dimension index. These components are combined into a gravitational model to produce measures and maps of the socioeconomic municipality network of the Brazilian Amazon. As a result, out of 792 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon, 9 were classified as macro-poles, 29 were classified as meso-poles and 48 as micro- poles. The areas of influence of these poles were determined according to the three hierarchy levels. The Amazon region network comprises a nested spatial pattern of municipalities not constrained by the state boundaries. Socioeconomic space and population movements influence the mobility of the deforestation frontier. This analysis provides insights to predict deforestation as well as to guide formulation of sustainable development policies suitable for each region’s specificity. # 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Socioeconomics; Migration; Territorial organization; Deforestation; Amazon This article is also available online at: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Ecological Indicators 7 (2007) 719–730 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 31 34995449; fax: +55 31 34995410. E-mail addresses: alexandrinogarcia@gmail.com (R.A. Garcia), britaldo@csr.ufmg.br (B.S. Soares-Filho), dsawyer@cedeplar.ufmg.br (D.O. Sawyer). 1470-160X/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2006.08.003