Riscos tecnológicos ambientais: análise da vulnerabilidade populacional na área urbana da cidade de Manaus-Am

Abstract

This work aims to identify and characterize the situation of population vulnerability to environmental technological risks for the neighborhoods of the urban area of Manaus-AM, Brazil. Manaus is a city that had a fast population and industrial growth, the population that was of 314.197 inhabitants in 1970, at the moment it is of approximately 2.100.000 inhabitants. The sources of technological risks identified and characterized as potentially damaging threats were: thermoelectric, solvent and/or gas industries (LPG/gas), port areas, waste disposal areas (landfills, dumps, recyclers and incinerators), airport areas and fuel depots (oil resellers and oil refineries). The elaboration of the database was done through the collection of information made available by local, federal and national agencies, as well as field work to certify the functioning of the sources of risk; and use of Geographic Information System, classifying the neighborhood of the city of Manaus into five categories of vulnerability, resulting from the combination of the three dimensions: number of inhabitants exposed to risks (population density); levels of environmental technological risk by area (occurrence of risk factors per neighborhood); and a fragility and capacity to react to risk situations, related to financial development (Municipal Human Development Index - Income Dimension). The results indicate that the technological risk factors are concentrated in the southern region of the city, however, the neighborhoods with the highest incidence of risk factors are located in the north and east zones, which also have the worst Human Development Indexes in the city. The distribution of the population is concentrated in the northeast-southwest axis, highlighting the neighborhoods to the southwest, where the oldest neighborhoods and the historical center of the capital are located. The highest levels of vulnerability are found in the northeastern area of the city, where neighborhoods of precarious socioeconomic conditions and highly populated are located. This work brings relevant subsidies for the planning of public policies and development of strategies for the prevention of risks and damages to the health of the population, identifying and characterizing critical areas of high vulnerability and high concentration of technological risk factors that could be the target of policies aimed at reducing these vulnerabilities and that urban planning can and should be a tool to reduce levels of vulnerability.