Cities and climate change in the context of social and environmental justice in Brazi

This paper presents four studies cases (on the Brazilian metropolitan regions of Curitiba, Baixada Santista, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) about the interactions of urbanization and global climate change through the frameworks of social and environmental justice. The increase of intensity and frequency of extreme events such as storms, heavy rain and heat waves have significantly provoked the vulnerability of the population in metropolitan regions of Brazil. These studies have as a main focus the transformations in the landscape due to the urbanization process and the consequent environmental degradation. Most of them involve the use of GIS (Geographic Information System) with methods of integrated analysis. The data about the environment and socioeconomic aspects were collected, stored and organized; extracted from institutional sources and satellite images. In these cases, risk is associated with society’s susceptibility to environmental changes, seen not only as a result of a certain climate event, but also as a consequence of a social process related to structural urban issues that are linked to political decisions and measures implemented in the course of history. We examine different dimensions and complementarities of territorial planning and the environmental changes caused by alterations in the dynamics of the local landscape.