Vulnerability Index – application and suitability of different methodologies applied to the municipality of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso - Brazil

Abstract

Urbanization is an increasingly fast process nowadays especially, in some Asian regions and Latin America. Cuiabá – the main city of Mato Grosso, state in the Midwest of Brazil – is a city with current population of 580,000 inhabitants, and an urbanization rate of 98%. Frequently, in Brazil, flood risk management still focuses on structural measures intending to diminish flood levels. However, prior to the adoption of these measures it is important to assess and map the existing vulnerabilities to guide decision makers on the choice of a coherent set of the technologies to be applied. This work proposes to apply four methodologies for determining the various aspects of urban vulnerability in the fully urbanized catchment of Cuiabá. Each chosen methodology sought to determine a specific aspect of vulnerability: social, economic, structural and environmental. A premise of this study considered the need of replicating these methodologies based on data freely available by the National Census. After calculations were carried out, the results were spacialized, by GIS tools and cross-sectional analysis was made to assess the vulnerability. The lessons learned showed the fragilities of the city in order to improve the process of flood risk management.