Social and environmental vulnerability in Porto Velho/RO: an analysis of the structure of intraurbanos places and the formation of hazardous áreas.
Floods. Flash floods. Mass movements. Porto Velho/RO.
The current society is experiencing the dichotomy between the capitalist development model and the limitations that this imposes in half and, consequently, the continuity of this model. The process of urbanization that is configured as the driving force of the expansion of Brazilian cities, in recent decades, has accelerated the so-called medium cities. Porto Velho/RO, as one of the boundaries of the capital expansion, driven by economic policies directed towards the Amazon post early 1970, experienced and is experiencing an accelerated process of expansion of your urban stain, which has caused a breakthrough about the spaces exposed to environmental hazards. Thus, this research aims to investigate the General influence of the urbanization process of Porto Velho in flood risk areas, flooding and mass movements. The method adopted used social and environmental modeling based on Hierarchical Analysis of processes (AHP), statistical techniques, geoprocessing, cartographic overlay and field work. As a result it was found that the study area is characterized by granitic geological bedrock, which under the influence of landscape evolution processes inherent in the Cenozoic, was covered by sediment as well as have been developed lateritic immature toppings. The morphometric characteristics showed that the urban area of Porto Velho presents natural tendencies to hydrological problems and the erosive effect is more substantial in the vicinity of the Madeira River. With regard to social vulnerability, the data demonstrated that the areas East and South of the city of Porto Velho represent areas with worst social vulnerability indicators, setting up places of social segregation and, at the same time, driving force of expansion of the city, especially in its parts coincident with the urban expansion areas after 1985. In relation to the environmental hazards it was observed that the areas with greatest potential to flooding, flash floods and mass movements occupy, respectively, 4.08%, 15.23% and 3.20% of the city of Porto Velho. The regions with the largest entry the floods coincide with urban growth vectors directed towards South and Southeast, and the areas most prone to flooding and mass movements located predominantly in the West, near the Madeira River. Preliminary field work showed the correlation between recent sedimentary covers lateritic horizons, mottled and the top 8% slope with occurrences of mass movements. So, from the results of this research, one can see that the environmental hazards of course exist in the urban area of Porto Velho are being enhanced by an urbanization process that overcomes the limits of sustainability the kind of ecological and the more socially vulnerable.