Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

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Organize and coordinate SINDEC throughout
Brazil.
This system has an operating structure based on several
bodies with different areas of responsibility at the national,
regional, state, municipal and sectoral levels.
SINDEC’s operations are funded by the Special Fund for
Public Calamities (FUNCAP), the financial instrument
established to deal with emergencies. Under the Federal
Constitution, it can also draw on loans to handle public
calamities.
ANA coordinates interactions between the ministries
of National Integration and the Environment, and oversees
the warning system when catchment basin levels
rise. It also conducts studies and programs on urban
water management and flood control.
Brazil also has a National Institute for Space Research
(Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE), which,
in 2008, established the Natural Disaster Surveillance
and Warning System (Sistema de Monitoramento e Alerta
de Desastres Naturais, SISMADEN), a geo-processing
tool for overseeing, recovering, storing and processing
environmental data. SISMADEN uses a large database
devised by INPE’s Center for Weather Forecasts and
Climate Studies (Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos
Climáticos, CPTEC), with information gathered from
across the country.
The system includes hydrometeorological and other
data needed to analyze and establish early warnings.
SISMADEN allows free use of its services and its data
can be downloaded at no cost on the Internet. It provides
access to up-to-date climate observations and
forecasting data and generates mathematical models for
devising risk maps of the areas selected.
The population is more diverse than in any other Brazilian
city. It mainly consists of descendants of Italian and
Portuguese immigrants, but also has large contingents
of Amerindian and African descent and others from the
major Arab, German, Spanish and Japanese migration
flows. In addition, São Paulo receives large numbers
of migrants from other parts of Brazil, particularly the
north and northeast regions. Although no national and
regional statistics are kept on the places of origin and
destination of emigrants from the Drought Polygon,
research by the Population Studies Unit (Núcleo de Estudos
Populacionais, NEPO) of the University of Campinas
(Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP)
indicates that almost 40 percent of the population in atrisk
areas (slums or favelas) of São Paulo city are from
the northeast region.
While only 1 percent of São Paulo residents (71,840)
in 1970 lived in favelas, many located near rivers and
streams, by 2008, the figure had soared to 13 percent
(1,395,000). See Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Population in Favelas in the City of São Paulo
(1970-2008)
Decade
Population
in favelas
Total population
of São Paulo Percent
1970 71,840 6,560,547 1
1980 375,023 8,558,841 4
1990 891,673 9,644,122 9
2000 1,160,597 10,338,196 11
2008 1,395,000 10,886,518 13
Source: Archives of the Secretaria de Habitação da Prefeitura Municipal
de São Paulo.
The favelas contain practically all those exposed to
flooding, especially in the rainy season. Map 4.3 shows
the location of the city’s at-risk areas.
B. The City of São Paulo
The case study focuses on the second phase of the Stream
Canalization Program (Programa de Canalização de Vales,
PROCAV) in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil,
which covers 1,509 km 2 and has 10.9 million inhabitants,
or almost 10 percent of the country’s population.
1. Disaster Risk Management
1.1 Institutional Organization
The Civil Defense System of São Paulo reports to the
Municipal Secretariat of Urban Security (Secretaria Municipal
de Segurança Urbana), whose activities are governed
by the Ministry of National Integration (Ministério
da Integração Nacional) within the SINDEC.
46 Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster: Experiences from Latin America