Geography’s Contribution to the 
Better Use of Resources 
HILGARD O'REILLY STERNBERG 
Centro de Pesquisas de Geografia do Brasil, 
Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia, Universidade 
do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro 
This paper has a twofold purpose. In the first place, it attempts 
to furnish a few instances of how the work of geographers can con- 
tribute to the better use of present resources. But, since the geo- 
graphical approach can best be understood by references to a spe- 
cific example, the paper also highlights some aspects of the dry 
section of the Nordeste, or northeastern Brazil, afficted with 
recurring periods of drought. 
The Nordeste 
The region we are concerned with consists essentially of an 
extensive, but not very elevated, plateau (200-300 meters, or 
650-1,000 feet), where most of the moderately upwarped pre- 
Cambrian basement, a maturely eroded surface, has been stripped 
of its sedimentary covering. Along a considerable section of the 
eastern seaboard, the crystallines—under the regional designation 
of Borborema plateau—terminate in a much dissected front, 
which rises from the 40- to 60-kilometer (roughly 25- to 40-mile) 
wide coastal belt and is particularly prominent in the states of 
Pernambuco and Paraiba. On the west, approximately at the 
state boundary between Ceara and Piaui, the oldland plunges 
under an extensive pile of westward-dipping strata. These break 
off in an imposing escarpment, the Ibiapaba, which dominates 
the exhumed plain by as much as 800 meters (2,600 feet). Exten- 
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