Vulnerabilidade das Praias do estado de santa catarina a eventos de erosão e inundação costeira: Proposta metodológica baseada em um índice multicritério

Abstract

The coastal zone of Santa Catarina State (SC)lies undertransitionaloceanographic and meteorological conditions. The regular passage of cold fronts and the incidence of winds with relative high intensity lead to the occurrence ofstorm surges, which can result inepisodes of coastal flooding and beach erosion. Those, by their turn,may induceproperty damage tothecoastal settlements. Sandy beaches are the dominant environments along Santa Catarina's coastline and have high social and economic value due to the variety of activities undertaken and to the highnearby population density. Thus, thestudyof coastal vulnerabilityis of great relevance for urban planning purposes and mitigation efforts in these areas. This study proposes a methodological framework for the mapping of Santa Catarina's coastal vulnerability to extreme events of waves and tides based on the development of a multicriteria index througha Geographical Information System. The vulnerability was obtained from the integration of two sub-models: susceptibility (consisting of environmental variables) and adaptive capacity (composed by socioeconomic variables). The highest values of vulnerability were found in central portions of the North and Central-North sectors and in segments at the north of the Central sector. The socioeconomic descriptors had great relevance over large settlements in Central-North sector (such as the cities ofBalneárioCamboriu, Itapema and Navegantes)where the vulnerability was lower than susceptibility in most casesdue to their high adaptive capacity. On the other hand, the South and Central-South sectors showed relatively low levels of adaptive capacity, but even so they wereidentified asthe least vulnerable, indicating that the scenario of low susceptibility is a determining factorin these areas.