Social Technologies in Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change in the Municipalities of Ceará, Brazil

Abstract

Climate forecasts for the Brazilian semiarid region in this century include increased temperature, reduced rainfall and aridification. The forecasts also warn of damage to human systems that already face an infinity of other threats, requiring that the vulnerability in these systems be better identified, to contribute to the management of coexistence and adaptation to climate change. The research aimed to analyze municipal vulnerabilities in the state of Ceará and identify potential Social Technologies (TS) to reduce climate vulnerability. For that, we used the Municipal Alert Index, period 2010 to 2020 and information about available TS, following a methodological route with four steps. The results showed that Ceará's municipalities are distributed into three vulnerability classes: Class (1) with 10 expanding municipalities; Class (2) with 15 municipalities in retraction and; Class (3) with 159 municipalities without significant change. The TS installed in Ceará total 375,708 units of 17 types, with emphasis on the Stone Tank and the 16,000-liter Cisterna with 61% and 26% of the units, respectively. In order to improve the results of living together and facing climate change, it is necessary to take into account the adherence between the number/type of TS and local demands.

Keywords
brazilian semiarid; environmental change; adaptation; assessment