The objective of this article is to establish the basis for the management of the periodic
floods that occur on the plains of the municipality of Belém, located in the state of Pará, in the
Northern Region of Brazil. It presents as a case study the dynamics of socioenvironmental
problems and impacts associated with flooding in the lowland areas of Belém and seeks to
contextualize the occurrence of these problems in an interdisciplinary perspective, relating to
the biophysical characteristics of the city with the local urban dynamics and anthropic action as
intensifying agents problems. For this purpose, data were collected regarding the altimetric
dimensions of the city land in order to delimit the plains areas, and later data referring to the
uses and occupation of the areas. A mapping of the overlapping of these data was then
produced, with a view to correlating the interaction between natural and anthropic elements in
the dynamics of socio-environmental problems, as well as identifying the situation of areas with
the highest socio-environmental vulnerabilities. The results of this article point to the need to
apply environmental planning, as well as the strengthening of public institutions, as a
fundamental subsidy for the search for a more sustainable culture for the plains of Belém,
considering that they have natural tendencies the impact of risks and disasters, due to the
extension of low altimetric quotas in their respective domains, and because of the anthropic
conditions that refer to the misuse and conservation of these areas by the public power and
local society, has the consequence of intensifying problems and socioenvironmental impacts
associated with occurrences of periodic floods. In this sense, public policies and actions of local
society are necessary to minimize the harmful effects in the short term and solve the problem,
with the achievement of environmental awareness as a subsidy to local development by society
in the long term.
|
