Expansão da Soja na Região sudoeste do Pará: Explorando Conexões com a Infraestrutura Logística

Since the late 1990s, soybean cultivation has gradually advanced from the Cerrado biome to the Amazon biome, driven by government and private investments in infrastructure, such as the Cargill port in Santarém (2004) and the paving of the BR-163 highway in Pará. In the municipalities of Santarém, Belterra, and Mojuí dos Campos, soybean cultivation areas expanded from 16 thousand hectares in 2004 to 75 thousand hectares in 2020, following transportation infrastructure improvements, a key factor in soybean expansion. This study aims to spatially characterize the road conditions and their impact on travel time from cultivation areas to the port of Santarém between 2004 and 2020, in the western region of Pará. The method included generating a friction surface and assigning different speeds to estimate travel time, considering land use and cover classes, road conditions and extent, and slope. The results showed a significant increase in the road network length from 2,322 km to 5,114 km and a reduction in average travel time from 65 minutes in the dry season to 92 minutes in the rainy season. The greatest reductions in travel time were observed in the southern portion of the study area, influenced by new feeder roads connected to BR-163. In the Santareno Plateau, where the most significant soybean expansion occurred, the reduction in travel time was smaller, reflecting an already consolidated road network in 2004.