RELIEF OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL, BRAZIL, AND THEIR REPRESENTATION IN MOCKUP

Abstract

This study aimed to represent the units of Rio Grande do Sul relief by a mockup. The model is a useful teaching resource that provides to the students and everyone interested in the living space organization the possibilities to visualize, in reduced and simplified mockup, the main elements of the relief of the city, state, region or country. The Rio Grande do Sul relief is similar whit the rest of Brazil, it has a very old bedrock, tectonic stability and modest altitudes. The Rio Grande do Sul has four main geomorphological units: the South-Rio-Grandence Plateau, the North-Rio-Grandence Plateau, the Central Depression and Coastal Plain. The altitudes vary from 0 to approximately 1398 meters. The lower altitudes are above sea level in the Coastal Plain and the highest point is Negro Mount in Realengo Mountain Range in city of São José dos Ausentes. The three-dimensional visualization of geomorphological compartments and the different heights of the relief let to work seamlessly other aspects of geography as runoff, climatic factors, vegetation, erosion, land and others. The mockup is used as a teaching resource for courses of Cartography, Geography of Rio Grande do Sul, Tourism and Geographical Space. Mockup is a teaching resource available for visits of students from elementary schools of the Santa Maria city, in the Laboratory of Cartography and Mineralogy of UNIFRA.