A comparative analysis of social indicators from the vulnerability cartography between Bragança Paulista and Campos do Jordão (São Paulo—Brazil)

Abstract

This research conducts a comparative analysis of the spatial variability of social vulnerability in the area of urban census tracts encompassing the Brazilian municipalities of Bragança Paulista/SP and Campos do Jordão/SP, employing a simplified indicator of social vulnerability. After reviewing the literature, 12 themes of variables compose the quantitative dataset from which the simplified indicator of social vulnerability was calculated. Accordingly, the list of information provided by CENSO 2010 allowed us to determine 9 variables related to the following thematic axes: Education, Ethnicity, Gender, Age, Income, Living Condition, Household composition, Infrastructure, and Basic Services. After the collection and tabulation of these data, an index was created and spatialized in order to establish the representation of vulnerability in the two study areas. Finally, it was possible to properly observe the areas that are most vulnerable and the areas with the lowest vulnerability, which allowed to better understand the patterns of urbanization that impelled and stopped these processes. The spatial patterns of social vulnerability show low vulnerability in central areas and high vulnerability in peripheral areas, obeying the opposing-pattern center-periphery. These social indicators may be used to help local decision makers to understand patterns of vulnerability, to improve the assessment of social impacts of their decisions, and to prepare multisector disaster risk reduction planning instruments that address the drivers of social vulnerability.