Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Oct 29:10:ecurrents.dis.c226851ebd64290e619a4d1ed79c8639.
doi: 10.1371/currents.dis.c226851ebd64290e619a4d1ed79c8639.

Drought in the Semiarid Region of Brazil: Exposure, Vulnerabilities and Health Impacts from the Perspectives of Local Actors

Aderita Sena  1 , Carlos Freitas  2 , Patrícia Feitosa Souza  1 , Fernando Carneiro  3 , Tais Alpino  2 , Marcel Pedroso  1 , Carlos Corvalan  4 , Christovam Barcellos  1
Affiliations

Drought in the Semiarid Region of Brazil: Exposure, Vulnerabilities and Health Impacts from the Perspectives of Local Actors

Aderita Sena et al. PLoS Curr. .

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this study was to understand and assess the perception of communities, organized civil society, health professionals, and decision-makers of several governmental institutions, regarding vulnerabilities and health impacts in drought prone municipalities of Brazil.

Methods: This study was carried out through a qualitative investigation in eight municipalities in the Brazilian Semiarid region. Data collection was done through semi-structure and structure interviews, and discussion with local actors, which included communities groups, health professionals, governmental managers and organized civil society.

Results: The results point to the local actors' concerns and to the fragility of the health sector in the planning of integrated actions directed towards risks and impacts associated with drought conditions on human health.

Discussion: The lack of a specific knowledge contributes to making invisible the process that determines the impacts of drought on health, leading to an acceptance of drought in those municipalities, reducing the capacity of the health system to respond to droughts.

Keywords: drought, vulnerability, risks, health, perception, Brazilian Semiarid, resilience.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

None
Table 4: Percentages of mentions in responses on the perception of the interviewees (communities, organized civil society and government) in relation to exposure to drought in the Rio Grande do Norte.
None
Table 5: Percentage of agreement (totally and partially) of the interviewees in Ceará regarding perceptions of exposure to drought.
None
Fig. 1: Synthesis of the perception of the government and populations exposed to drought in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. IPCC. Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (Eds.)]. Cambridge, UK and New York, USA: Cambridge University Press; 2012. 582 pp.
    1. IPCC, 2014: Summary for policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L.White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-32.
    1. CGEE. Brazil and Climate Change: vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos: Brasília/DF, 2009. 282p.
    1. UNISDR, 2015. Making Development Sustainable: The Future of Disaster Risk Management. Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), 2015.
    1. Nobre, Carlos. Brazil and climate change – the context. In: Brazil and Climate Change: vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. Brasília/DF, 2009.