The Institute of Geosciences (IG) received a visit from Anderson Marchiori and Kleber Conceição, respectively, municipal coordinator of Civil Defense in Itaquaquecetuba (SP) and supervisor of the Teaching and Volunteering Center of the same body. The visit, which took place on Tuesday (21), marked the end of the project. Municipal Risk Reduction Plan (PMRR) Developed in partnership between Unicamp, the municipality of Itaquaquecetuba, and the Ministry of Cities, this project marks the beginning of a new phase of partnerships between the IG (Instituto Geofísico) and the Civil Defense of the city in São Paulo state.
The PMRR (Municipal Plan for Resilience and Risk Management) is a planning instrument for mitigating the negative effects of climate change and socio-natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, and urban erosion. The proposal from the Ministry of Cities was for professionals from 16 Brazilian universities to develop the Plan for 20 cities located in four of the country's five regions. Unicamp (University of Campinas) was responsible for the PMRR of Itaquaquecetuba.
Coordinated by Jefferson Picanço, a professor at IG, the study identified four types of risk areas in the city: regions susceptible to floods and flash floods, waterlogging, riverbank erosion, and landslides. The study also determined the locations with these types of risk and those that represent a direct threat to the population. “We were able to identify 178 risk sectors. We listed which ones have the highest risk and which ones have the lowest risk. We delivered this result to the Ministry. The city hall will now use this information in a series of public policies,” explains Picanço.
The first step now will be to overlay the existing city mapping with the mapping done by the Unicamp researchers to understand what changes have occurred in the scenario. The Unicamp researchers indicated several types of works that can be carried out in the municipality to mitigate the risk of disasters. For Anderson Marchiori, from Civil Defense, the diagnosis presented by the researchers is innovative in identifying risk sectors rather than risk areas, allowing Civil Defense to act more directly. “This makes it easier because we know that the adoption of measures by the municipality to mitigate risk will be in a somewhat more isolated way. So, before, budgetary planning was considered in a very broad way, whereas now we know it's in a more targeted way. Or, sometimes, even seeking support from the residents themselves,” explains Marchiori.
Luiz Bongiovani, senior researcher at IG, highlights the social participation methodology developed by Unicamp. During the mapping process, walks were conducted with the residents. “Because they knew the reality, their territory – where the water came from, how high it rose – the walk helped to diagnose the risk scenario,” he explains. This methodology also involved community workshops in the communities exposed to risk, where a preliminary map of the risk areas was drawn and then the risk sectors were delimited. “The residents helped us do this. Later, at another time, we held another workshop with these same residents, who validated or corrected the map that Unicamp had made together with them,” he adds.
According to Marchiori, Itaquaquecetuba has a high vulnerability to natural disasters. “This was an extremely important partnership for us, and therefore we seek to further strengthen this bond to advance other projects in the future,” he states. The project was also important for the training of IG students, who actively participated in research in Itaquaquecetuba and were able to develop master's dissertations and undergraduate research projects. Other studies continue to be carried out by IG students.
Long- and medium-term actions could be developed between the IG (Instituto Geofísico) and the Civil Defense of Itaquaquecetuba. According to Emilson Pereira Leite, director of the Unicamp unit, “the technical and preventative work developed by the municipality, with exemplary actions in monitoring and mitigating landslides and floods, demonstrates a strong integration between science and public management.” He concluded, “Our conversation highlighted the importance of structuring broad institutional partnerships between Unicamp and the municipalities in the region, capable of supporting extension and research projects focused on the development of natural disaster risk maps, fundamental for identifying the most vulnerable areas and supporting public policies with a significant social impact.”
Read more:
Unicamp seals partnership with Ministry of Cities
Study identifies risk areas in a municipality in the metropolitan region of São Paulo
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