Socio-Environmental Vulnerability, Resilience and Disasters in Modern Urban Contexts: The Case of Vila Velha (ES, Brazil)

This text presents for discussion the research project "Understanding socio-environmental vulnerability construction in modern urban contexts: The case of Vila Velha (ES)” The project considers the perspective of complexity and an interdisciplinary approach, observing the importance of considering existing interconnectivities between the various environments involved in the development and urbanization process in peripheral areas, and its relationship with the construction of socio-environmental vulnerabilities and with tackling disaster situations. In this context, it is presumed that the modern city is located within a physical base, not considering its biogeophysical characteristics. As the oldest site in Espírito Santo state, Vila Velha is the object of a study which, based on the perspective of human occupation of the biogeophysical basis of its land area, seeks to gain an understanding of the reasons for which socio-environmental disasters, such as mass movements and floods, are recurrent - having an impact on vulnerabilized populations in risk areas - and what resilience strategies are in place in the communities studied.  In 2013, the city twice found itself in a state of emergency during periods of heavy rainfall causing, in December of that year, significant disruption to life in the city – populations made homeless and streets flooded for several days. Since February 2015, this project has been under development with the employment of different methodological procedures to meet the objectives of research teams in the fields of geology; architecture and urbanism; biology; sociology; geography; anthropology and photography.