Vulnerabilidade socioambiental: análise da cidade do Natal/RN a partir do índice geral de vulnerabilidade socioambiental por bairro

Abstract

Inserted within the relationship between society-nature, the study of socioenvironmental vulnerability and the dimensions that it contains requires a methodological theoretical effort for the articulation of the multidimensional phenomena that hold society as their subject. In this context, the natural and the social are conceived as elements of the same process and the socioenvironmental characteristics appear as relevant to the analysis of the responsiveness of populations to extreme events. For equal risks and dangers, different social groups may have distinct vulnerabilities, because the socioenvironmental vulnerability condition is intrinsically related to the location of the subject in the city and its insertion in the urban social dynamics. Thereby, starting from the premise that in the capitalist city, due to its uneven nature, the socioenvironmental vulnerability is manifested in different ways and with different intensities, and that the areas that show better environmental conditions have lower levels of socioenvironmental vulnerability, being true the reverse situation, it is questioned: what are the levels of socioenvironmental vulnerability in the city of Natal/RN? How are these levels spatially distributed, considering the scale of the neighborhoods and of the administrative regions? How are they presented, considering the socioeconomic characteristics and the location of their populations in the four administrative regions of the city? Considering the presented problematization, it was defined as the general objective to analyze the levels of socioenvironmental vulnerability of the city of Natal/RN, and as specific objectives: identify the socioenvironmental characteristics of the city of Natal; produce the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (IVSB), the Environmental one (IVAB) and the General Index of Socioenvironmental Vulnerability by Neighborhood (IGVSB); identify the precarious settlements in the city; indicate, spatially, the IVSB, IVAB and the IGVSB in Natal; analyze the Levels of Socioenvironmental Vulnerability, according to the city administrative regions, considering the spatial distribution of IVSB, IVAB and IGVSB, the socioeconomic characteristics and the location of their inhabitants. The objectives were achieved from a methodological approach that uses bibliographical research, documentary research and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The results obtained allowed the knowledge of the Vulnerability Levels of Natal and the reality of its population. From these data, it was found that the socioenvironmental vulnerability, characterized by a complex scenario, involves both the illegal occupation of fragile areas and the difficulty of access to land and housing in urban áreas. And that for the identification and execution of actions of combat and mitigation of its effects, the public government power finds in the methodologies that use indicators subsidies to urban socioenvironmental management. It highlights the importance of knowing its urban terrritorial planning and concludes, from the analysis of the Vulnerability Socioenvironmental Levels of Natal, that there is an uneven distribution of this process, culminating in the overlap of the socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities in certain areas of the city as a result of an uneven, selective and exclusionary urbanization. This scenario contributes to the deepening of socioenvironmental inequalities and ratifies the historical processes of segregation and channeling of public and private investments in the administrative regions of the city.