Construção social dos riscos e degradação ambiental: município de Sousa, um estudo de caso.

Abstract

This work aimed the study of the degradation/desertification and the social construction of the risks to disaster, through the analysis of the historical process and the diagnosis of the environmental socioeconomic conditions of the semi-arid of the state of Paraiba, having as test area the municipality of Sousa, in the State of Paraiba, generating subsidies for the risk assessment in that area. One of the principal observed actors was the anthropic activity that performs an important paper in the rural environmental scenery. The historical data and the economical environmental diagnosis were the principal elements in the study of the social construction of the risks and for definition of the vulnerabilities. Based on the TM/Landsat- 5 image interpretation and field works, degraded areas were mapped. The intervention of the man in that scenery has been propitiating the accentuated degradation of the natural resources and the occurrence of disasters. Areas with very serious level of degradation were identified. They constitute the called "nucleus of desertification", that although occupying only 2% of the studied area, show deep reflections about the exploration of the natural resources in the semi-arid. The levels of degradation serious, moderate, low and very low occupy respectively 39%, 37%, 18% and 4% of the total area. The population is highly dependent of the public power, that in its turn, has been ineffective in the solution of problems that afflict the local communities. A dynamics of identification of the vulnerabilities of the rural families was developed and, its results indicated a very high global vulnerability, that defines the enormous social, economical, technological fragility in adaptation to the environment in that they live - reflecting the lack of specific public policies. All the referring data of the environmental degradation generated a database on SPRING, easy for consultations and for updatings, that could be used as subsidy in the process of the decision makers in the administration of the risks.