TITLE:
Indicator of Agriculture Vulnerability to Climatic Extremes. A Conceptual Model with Case Study for the Northeast Brazil
AUTHORS:
Bruce Kelly N. Silva, Paulo Sergio Lucio
KEYWORDS:
SPI; Sensibility; Adaptation; Climate Changes
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: The Northeast Brazil (NEB)
is known for its temporal and spatial variability of precipitation. Several
studies have investigated this variability in order to understand the damaging
episodes such as droughts and floods. The phenomenon of drought in the NEB is a
complex topic due to affectingmillions of people and beingthe
object of study in several fields of knowledge. One way to try to argue about
this phenomenon is through the concept of vulnerability. The “operability” of
this broad concept in natural disasters is a complex task. In order to measure
an indicator of vulnerability it is necessary large amount of data from
different areas of knowledge, among whichinclude: meteorology,
socio-environmental, economic, public health, among other areas. The main
objective of this study is to create an index of vulnerability to climate
extremes (drought and flood) for the NEB and to compare this rate with those
found in the scientific literature. The data that will be used in this study
are from ANA (Agência Nacional das águas), IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de
Georgrafia e Estatística), and Ministry of National integration.