Social risk in the Immediate Region of Campina Grande: subsidies for the understanding of socio-environmental conditions

Abstract

The occupation of inappropriate areas to dwelling by the poorest part of the population has caused a greater exposure of this population to disasters from natural phenomena. Therefore, this study sought characterizes the social risk in the Immediate Region of Campina Grande, in Paraíba, in order to provide subsidies which assist in the environmental management and planning of the region. These subsidies were inserted into social and economic indicators (per capita monthly income below a minimum wage, total population, and households without water supply through the general network, among others) for elaboration of maps, in order to comprehend the social risk. Indicators were chosen to analyze the social and economic context, besides the deprivation of essential services, which are submitted to the population. The social risk was categorized in “very low”, “low”, “moderate”, “high” and “very high”. The eastern part of the region showed a greater concentration of counties with “very high” to “high” social risk. On the other hand, the western part was very heterogeneous, predominating counties in situation of “low” social risk. The research accomplished in a regional scale provides contribution to effect new studies in an intraurban scale, thus, managers of the counties will can obtain results as cooperation for decision-making, evaluating the most vulnerable areas to disasters.