Cidades, vulnerabilidade e adaptação às mudanças climáticas: um estudo na Região Metropolitana de Belém

Abstract

Despite the remaining uncertainties about climate change, researches show that global warming is inevitable, making fundamental the governmental investment on policies to minimize the vulnerability and the develop of adaptation plans to the impacts of these changes. In the metropolitan region of Belém (RMB), urban areas are subject to flooding, which climate change may influence on changes in their frequency, magnitude and location. The factors that determine the impacts, vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change are complex and uneven in different regions, being directly related, among other things to the level of social development and responsiveness of the society in various scales. Based on this, the research aimed to define the degree of vulnerability and adaptation to the impacts of flooding due to climate change at the RMB, considering the social, housing and sanitation aspects. By building a matrix of analysis, the multicriteria analysis and the definition of an index, it was concluded that the vulnerability degree in the RMB is average in urban areas of the municipalities of Belém and Ananindeua, and high in Marituba, Benevides, and Santa Isabel of Pará, requiring investments in measures, plans and adaptation projects in sanitation infrastructure and housing, as well as improving the social aspects related to income, education and health