TITLE:
Spatial Analysis of Affected Areas by Extreme Hydrological Events in Rio de Janeiro (The Host City for the 2016 Olympic Games)—Brazil
AUTHORS:
Leandro Andrei Beser de Deus, Camilla Silva Motta Santos, Patricia Gomes da Silveira, Marcos Aurélio Vasconcelos Freitas, Paulo Márcio Leal Menezes
KEYWORDS:
Extreme Events; Flood Hazards; GIS; Hydric Resources; Spatial Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geographic Information System,
Vol.5 No.4,
July
24,
2013
ABSTRACT:
The most
frequent types of disasters in Brazil
are associated with extreme hydrological events. Adding to this situation, in Brazil, there
are the extreme sociospatial discrepancies that are historically constructed.
They leave marks in space, making specific areas, for political interest or
not, more vulnerable to the different mentioned processes. To this extent, the
public management should plan actions and, also, it may act in a more holistic
way adding new trends, such as, the use of geotechnologies that are applied to
environmental management in the realm of urban planning. From a case study in
the city of Rio de Janeiro,
this paper aims to contribute and draw attention to such issues. It may reach
its target through pointing and spatially analyzing which areas are in the most
critical situation related to the occurrence of extreme hydrological events. To
achieve this goal, it was proposed a methodology to inventory the occurrence of
inundation/flooding for a certain period, in this case 2001-2008. Besides, the
methodology could systematize data and integrate them with other important
issues for supporting the process of identification and analysis of the most
critical areas. Historical aspects of occupation and the most vulnerable
socio-environmental aspects were raised, too, in order to validate the
highlighted areas. This integration was enabled concerning the support of
geoprocessing techniques. The results of this integration subsidized the
mapping and spatial analysis of the affected areas in the city and the
criticality in relation to the extreme hydrological events. Finally, it was
possible to observe that the identification of the most critical affected areas
does not mean the exhaustion of the subject. The location of these areas is
directly linked to the sample that was used as the basis for analyses. This data set
only represents recorded events by the Municipal Civil Defense respecting the
studied time frame. However, the results permit to take notes and raise
relevant environmental questions about the roots and the occurred impacts that
were originated from the extreme hydrological events, which have been observed
in recent decades.