13. Carlos Augusto de Figueiredo Monteiro and the Construction of Brazilian Geographical Climatology

Brazilian university geography was founded in the first half of the twentieth century under the philosophical and epistemological frameworks of the French School and the German School. This was one of the events that opened up the institutional modernisation of the country—a way of placing scientific knowledge within the sphere of the country’s development. For around 20 years, the nascent geography was dominated by its Franco-German roots, at a time when the first professors and graduates in Brazilian geography were educated. Carlos Augusto de Figueiredo Monteiro was educated within this context, at the end of the 1940s, and subsequently pursued an internship in France with Francis Ruellan, in the Laboratory of Geomorphology/Dinard. Within this scientific context, he made contact with and was influenced by the Norwegian—or frontogenesis—School (in particular the contributions of Serra and Ratisbona), being one of the first to apply (1) the approach of atmospheric circulation and air mass dynamics to the genetic analysis and classification of the climates of Brazil. This contribution inaugurated a new approach (1960s) to climate, based on atmospheric dynamics and their interaction with human activities within Brazil's territory. Echoing the criticisms of Max Sorre regarding the statistical approach to weather, and Pierre Pedelaborde regarding weather types, he developed (2) the rhythm-based analysis of weather types, as required in order to take advantage of the atmosphere as a geographical factor. Concerned about the chaotic urbanisation of Brazil and the subsequent reduction in the quality of life there, he proposed (1970) a (3) theoretical-methodological foundation for the insertion of urban climate into the planning of cities (Urban Climate System; UCS). These three major contributions constituted the formation of a Brazilian Climatology School and a Brazilian Urban Climatology School. However, his contributions also extended to the fields of geographical epistemology, environmental analysis and cultural geography.