For planning purposes, COREDEs – Conselhos Regionais de Desenvolvimento (Regional Councils of Development) are grouped in 9 RFs – Regiões Funcionais de Planejamento (Functional Regions of Planning). This regionalization was defined by Rumos 2015* – Estudo de Desenvolvimento Regional e Logística de Transportes no RS – SCP (Study of Regional Development and Transport Logistics in RS), based on criteria of economic, environmental and social homogeneity and on variables related to the identification of polarizations, such as employment, trips by type of transport, urban hierarchy, organization of the network of health services and higher education.

Regionalization by COREDEs and RFs corresponds to the scales used at present as reference for the elaboration of the State Pluriannual Plan and the State Budget, as well as diagnoses and prospective studies.

* SCP. Rumos 2015: estudo de desenvolvimento regional e logística de transportes no Rio Grande do Sul/SCP-DEPLAN; DCAPET. Porto Alegre, 2006. 5v.: tab.; graf.; mapas.