This article presents a methodology to study the Rio de Janeiro Greater Metropolitan Area, termed "Rio, 40°C", using the census tract as the data aggregation unit, making access available to an adjuvant tool in the process of allocating health management resources with the objective of minimizing social inequalities expressed in urban space, especially metropolitan urban areas. From this perspective, all the Municipal and State departments comprising the social area of a given government administration can take advantage of the methodology presented here. The techniques used are: exploratory data analysis, generation of basic indicators, principal components analysis, and cluster analysis. The level of detail achieved is a function of the scale of data aggregation in the census tract. The final product was developed and implemented in an electronic medium (CD-ROM) containing all the data bases, allowing data analysis according to the user's needs, with special emphasis on planning of social actions and programs and decision-making support. The final result will support considerations on the central position of metropolitan space in the analysis of quality-of-life profiles, analysis of public investments, and electoral analyses.
Socio-spatial inequalities; Analytical methodology; Metropolitan area; Information systems; Quantitative methods in public health