Construção de um Índice de Vulnerabilidade socioambiental para os municípios da Zona Sul do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The term vulnerability has been used more frequently in studies, research, and official documents, seeking a better understanding of the aspects of vulnerability of population groups, their needs, and their specificities. As it is a complex and multifaceted field of analysis, the most different areas of knowledge propose to analyze different perspectives of vulnerability. In this study, the construction was carried out from the social and environmental perspectives, aiming at an integrated analysis of social inequalities in the areas of study. The COVID-19 pandemic crosses certain populations more severely, as they are already in other vulnerable situations. The objective of this study was to analyze aspects of vulnerability from different perspectives using social, economic, environmental, infrastructure and health indicators. The construction of the IVSA – Social and Environmental Vulnerability Index, allows the ranking of the regions studied according to the existing vulnerability processes. The methodology was based on the choice and classification of indicators for the construction of a global index for the municipalities of the South Zone of Rio Grande do Sul and for the municipality of Rio Grande from the integration with a GIS - Geographic Information System. The results demonstrate the complexity of situations of vulnerability for these regions, the contribution of the perspectives analyzed and the relationship between COVID-19 and vulnerable populations. For the southern zone of Rio Grande do Sul, the municipalities classified with the highest vulnerability were Cerrito (0.520), Hulha Negra (0.530), Herval (0.546), São José do Norte (0.569), Pedras Altas (0.601) and Aceguá (0.673). The municipality of Aceguá was classified as the most vulnerable within the studied scenario and the indicators that influenced the classification are related to the inadequacy of basic sanitation services, education, and employment relationship. For the municipality of Rio Grande, the areas located in the rural area were classified as the most vulnerable and the indicators that contributed are associated with garbage collection, education, and displacement services. COVID-19 affects already vulnerable population groups differently, as is the case of neighborhoods in the municipality of Rio Grande such as Buchholz and Santa Tereza where there are households with low performance of indicators related to income, age and lack of water supply services and sewage collection and which have higher fatality rates and prevalence rates. The use of methodologies to map these populations helps in decision-making processes and in the elaboration of policies committed to interrupting the processes of social inequality brought about by capitalism.