Socio-Environmental Vulnerability to Drought in the Seridó Potiguar, Brazil: Building Indicators
Imprecise in space-time and with damaging effects, drought as a historical-natural phenomenon of high complexity has been afflicting the population of the Seridó Potiguar Region, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeast Brazil. For centuries, the region, of state relevance, is part of the Brazilian semiarid region. This reality produces socio-spatial, socio-economic, and political-institutional conflicts. Considering this, and the fact that drought in the 21st century continues to reach disastrous proportions and cause harm to human systems, this research aimed to offer a partial overview of the socio-environmental vulnerability of the Seridó region to drought, focusing on seven key municipalities: Bodó, Caicó, Currais Novos, Ipueira, Jardim de Piranhas, Jucurutu, and Parelhas. The Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) was applied to these municipalities, composed of the sub-indices of Exposure, Susceptibility, and Adaptive Capacity, based on socio-economic and physical-environmental variables, which were calculated, classified, and cartographically represented using the RGB color composition. After analyzing the results, it was found that the municipalities ranged from low to moderate vulnerability, which can be justified by the compensation between the variables themselves and the good indicators regarding social assistance, mixed economy, hydraulic infrastructure, and means of coping with the semiarid region. PDF-pt (Português (Brasil))
Local-Scale Disaster Risk Indicators – Capítulo do Professor Dr. Lutiane
Springer – Urban Flooding in Brazil Global changes in our planet’s environment are both products and producers of changes at the local scale. It is at this scale that the impacts are perceived by the most vulnerable people. The objective of this chapter is to develop local-scale disaster risk indicators and provide support to local decision-making for reducing the risk of disasters caused by flood events. For that, the chosen study area was the urban area of the municipality of Macau, on the northern coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeastern Brazil. This area has a great diversity of ecosystems and is located in the transition between river, continental, and marine environments, where human activities and settlements have considerably changed the functioning of the different ecosystems. The Local DRIB (Disaster Risk Indicators in Brazil) Index is based on theoretical and methodological approaches from the disaster risk scientific community and draws on the understanding that disaster risk derives from a combination of physical hazards and vulnerabilities of exposed people. The case study presented in this chapter exposes the potential of a model that can contribute to the development of risk management and micro-disaster actions through the construction of a small integrated spatial network.