Urban sprawl and environment in the municipal administrations of Vila Velha between 2009 and 2016

Abstract The paper aims to analyze the development of the urban environmental policy in the city of Vila Velha, state of Espírito Santo, during two municipal administrations between 2009 and 2016. It intends to investigate how the city, located in the Metropolitan Region of Grande Vitória, fills its urban environmental policy agenda, in an urban sustainability perspective, with elements of environmental justice and political ecology, based on the debate about ecocentric environmental rationality. The analysis focuses on the two municipal administration plans and on interviews with authorities who occupied relevant positions in Vila Velha, to investigate the concern about the way in which public administration deals with the disorganized occupation of the territory and with social conflicts in the distribution of the impacts of the environmental degradation on its urban environment.