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In Brazil, droughts are widespread and recurrent in the semiarid region, mainly due to its water vulnerability. Approximately 28 million people live in the region, which concentrates the highest proportion of people living in poverty in Brazil. If drought occurs intensively and extensively in densely populated areas, it can result in disaster when local capacities are insufficient to avoid significant damage. The risks associated with drought are related to the natural hazard, local vulnerabilities, response capacity, and mitigation policies. This study presents the challenges for the consolidation of a drought risk warning system in Brazil and proposes an initial structure for assigning responsibilities among the national institutions involved in the theme in order to guide actions for the risk mitigation.

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RESUMOEsse estudo tem por objetivo realizar um zoneamento das ocorrências de granizo e vendaval no estado do Rio Grande do Sul (RS), entre os anos 1989 e 2009. Foram utilizados os registros de ocorrências dos eventos (com e sem decretação de situação de emergência), obtidos junto à Coordenadoria Estadual de Defesa Civil do RS (CEDEC), a fim de analisar o período de maior freqüência de ocorrências e as regiões mais atingidas por esses eventos. Os resultados mostraram que, em relação aos eventos de granizo a estação mais favorável para sua ocorrência é a primavera (290 eventos), seguida do inverno (132 eventos). As áreas que apresentaram as maiores ocorrências localizaram-se na metade norte do Estado, dentre as quais se destacaram como mais atingidas o Alto Uruguai (217 eventos) e Planalto Médio (90 eventos). As regiões da Depressão Central e das Missões também foram bastante atingidas por tais tempestades, porém com uma freqüência ligeiramente menor (83 e 70 eventos). Com relação aos vendavais, as regiões mais afetadas foram as do Alto Uruguai (271 eventos), Planalto Médio (120), Depressão Central (116) e Missões (96 eventos), e o período de maior ocorrência foi a primavera (novembro e outubro). Regiões como o Litoral (24), Encosta do Sudeste (13) e Serra do Sudeste (11) registraram poucos episódios durante os vinte anos estudados, o que caracteriza a porção Sul do estado como a menos preferencial a esses extremos de tempo. Foi mostrado também, que esses eventos adversos não acontecem somente em anos com a presença dos fenômenos climáticos El Niño e La Niña. Houve ocorrências de intensos episódios em anos classificados como neutros (ausência dos fenômenos). Palavras chaves: Desastres Naturais, Granizo, Vendaval ABSTRACT: MAPPING OF NATURAL DISASTERS ON RIO GRANDE DO SUL STATE DURING 1989 TO 2009: HAILS AND WIND STORMSThis paper aims to carry out a mapping of wind storms and hails natural disasters occurred in Rio Grande do Sul state during the period from 1989 to 2009. Records of the events were obtained at the State Civil Defense Authority to analyze the preferential period for these occurrences and the most affected areas by these events. The results showed that most of the hails occurred in spring (290 events) and in winter (132 events), and the most affected regions were Alto Uruguai (217 events) and Planalto Médio (90 events). The regions of Depressão Central and Missões were also affected, but with a slightly lower frequency (83 and 70 events). Regarding to wind storms, the most affected areas were those located in the northern half of the state: Alto Uruguai (271 events), Planalto Médio (120), Depressão Central (116) and Missões (90), and the highest occurrence were observed in the spring season (preferential period), in the months November and October . In the Sea Shore, Southeast coast and Southeast mountains regions few episodes of hails and wind storms have occurred (24, 13 and 11 events respectively), characterizing the south region of the State as the most improbable region for the occurrence of thes...

The increasing figures of natural disasters and related human and material losses represent a major challenge to be faced by the Brazilian government, the scientific community and civil society all together. Landslides and floods resulting from climatic extremes have been associated not only to global climatic changes, but mostly due to the increase of population vulnerability and the lack of effective mitigation actions. Core governmental responses to mitigate such losses include the creation of operational centers for disaster monitoring and management -Cemaden (National Early Warning and Monitoring Centre of Natural Disasters) and CENAD (Centro Nacional de Gerenciamento de Riscos e Desastres). The establishment of these institutions associated with investments to map risky areas are key to implement landslides and floods monitoring systems. Despite significant investments, the implementation of such natural disaster monitoring systems depend much on cooperative actions among organizations and entities from different sectors of the society. The main objective of this work is to present the challenges and perspectives of innovative digital ecosystems designed to effectively monitor, warn and respond to natural disasters related to landslides and floods in Brazil. The several methodologies adopted make use of technical, scientific and empirical knowledge to establish a rain gauge network of 1400 automatic pluviometers and 1100 semiautomatic pluviometers, distributed in more than 800 municipalities defined as priority ones by the Brazilian National Plan of Risk Management and Response to Natural Disasters. Pilot projects of landslides monitoring systems are also included in the methodology in key municipalities where the number of human losses has been significant in recent disasters. In order to develop such challenging methodologies, Cemaden has worked together with the Center for Information Technology Renato Archer (CTI), CENAD, a number of research institutions, the private sector, local and regional governments and non-governmental organizations as well as the civil society. The combination of different types of knowledge, technological approaches and levels of interaction to population under risk of such a variety of organizations shall configure a collective intelligence able to improve the efficiency and confidence of early warnings of landslides and floods, as well as to promote further commitment of local governments and communities to respond to warnings. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.3.4 [Information storage and retrieval]:Systems and software -current awareness systems (selective dissemination of information--SDI), information networks, performance evaluation (efficiency and effectiveness), question-answering (fact retrieval), user profiles and alerts systems.

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O conhecimento sobre a população urbana expostos ao risco de desastres é imprescindível para o planejamento de ações de prevenção e resposta. O objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar as condições de exposição de grupos populacionais  em áreas de risco de desastres em 479 municípios brasileiros. O procedimento metodológico baseou-se na associação de dados censitários e de áreas de risco de deslizamentos, enxurradas e inundações. A base de dados foi constituída de dados sociodemográficos e ambientais, que permitiu caracterizar os moradores e as moradias em áreas de risco. Os resultados evidenciaram que o maior total de pessoas expostas estava na região Sudeste do país, embora, em termos proporcionais, na região Nordeste 15 a cada 100 pessoas viviam em áreas de risco. Estes dados permitem selecionar áreas que demandam ações prioritárias, auxiliando na implementação de políticas públicas regionais que promovam a redução de danos humanos no país.