Socio-Environmental Vulnerability of Areas Subject to Flooding in the Municipality of São João da Barra, RJ, Brazil

Abstract

The lifestyle of modern society is characterized by indiscriminate use of natural resource and intense urbanization, which expose communities to risk of natural catastrophes such as inundation and flooding.  The county of São João da Barra, located at the state of Rio de Janeiro, possesses many records of environmental accidents and flooding.  These events caused economic deterioration of social infrastructure in different areas of its healthcare system. Lack of information regarding the vulnerability of exposed-to-risk population hampers the development of response plans and efficient risk management to reduce the losses caused by environmental catastrophes. This work aims to contribute with the formation of a database able to assist the elaboration of public policies and efficient decision making in order to minimize the negative impact of such tragedies. We proposed mapping the county’s socioeconomic profile and the development of an index of socio-environmental vulnerability able to indicate the areas and populations with different levels of risk exposure taking into account the environmental susceptibility, degree of poverty, and social privation of the community. For doing so, we used data provided by the demographic census of 2010 and we considered territorial demarcation of São João da Barra in census sectors established by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (BIGS).