Vulnerability of families living in areas at risk of landslides in Cubatão (SP, Brazil)

Author(s)

Diomário Coelho Cerqueira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2010-03-12

Examining board members

Álvaro de Oliveira D'Antona; Heloisa Soares de Moura Costa; Eduardo Marandola Junior

• Advisor: Álvaro de Oliveira D'Antona

Abstract

Landslides are common environmental hazards in urban Brazil. In Cubatão, a county located in the state of São Paulo, the slips are environmental hazards potentiated by combining the existence of occupations in the hills with altitudes ranging between 100 and 700 m high rainfall in the region, reaching an annual rainfall of 2,240 mm. According to the sociodemographic characteristics of areas at risk of landslides took place in 2007 by municipal and state governments, there are 22,080 people living in 7,832 dwellings, ie 21% of households in the city of Cubatão. This study was based initially in sociodemographics of the population residing in these areas and later in fieldwork aimed to highlight the strategies for the prevention of landslides by the residents in one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the events. We used demographic data systematized by the Socio-Environmental Restoration Program of the Serra do Mar which, according to different degrees of risk of landslides, removal and resettlement of populations living in risky areas. Among the demographic data presented highlight a greater proportion of households with incomes of up to three minimum wages and residents with more than six years of primary school age and account for households with up to 10 years of local residence. The data obtained from fieldwork through semi-structured interviews in households in a risk area residents indicated that they use different strategies to cope with slips, such as help from neighbors and relatives (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 08/52191-6 - Social and environmental vulnerability in Cubatão, São Paulo: the case of the Cota 200 neighborhood
• Grantee: Diomário Coelho Cerqueira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master