With a massive presence of State Civil Defense technicians, as well as researchers and students, the Multirisk Project held on October 19th and 20th, in the Auditorium of the Institute of Public Policies, of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), a workshop to evaluate progress, share experiences and consolidate the results produced throughout the execution of the project. Also present was the director of the Antônio Fagundes State School, located in the José Sarney Community, a territory where the team has been working on participatory methodologies in recent years.
The Multirisk Project focuses on the development of innovative indicators, methodologies and instruments aimed at improving the management of environmental and urban risks in a context marked by the intensification of climate change. Among the topics covered are the risks associated with intense rains, water supply deficits, heat waves and other threats that affect vulnerable populations and territories.
For UFRN professor Lutiane Queiroz de Almeida, one of the coordinators of the initiative, “the Multi-risk Project fills two important gaps in the holistic understanding of risks: on the one hand, it advances in the understanding of knowledge provided by different actors involved in disaster risk management; on the other, it advances in the systemic understanding of the interactions between the dimensions that make up the risks”.
The workshop had an internal discussion dedicated to detailing the Methodological Framework of the Multi-risk Approach, structuring the research carried out by the network, and a case study carried out in the Lagoa do Sarney Community. In the second part of the event, open to the public, the Multirrisco Project coordinators shared their perspectives on working with the community.
The professor at the Federal University of ABC, Fernando Rocha Nogueira, addressed the importance of territorial reading and community participation in understanding and managing risks. The UFRN professor, Samia Nascimento Sulaiman, highlighted the role of education, knowledge dialogue and social participation in the construction of adaptation and risk reduction strategies in the face of the climate emergency.
Lutiane Almeida presented methodological advances aimed at the integrated analysis of the different threats and vulnerabilities that make up multi-risk scenarios. To conclude, researcher Silvia Midori Saito, from the National Center for Monitoring Alerts and Natural Disasters, explained experiences related to monitoring, forecasting and warning systems for extreme events associated with climate change.
The team envisages, as a final product of the discussions, the publication of material on the development of the research. The objective is to contribute to researchers, public managers, civil society organizations and institutions interested in strengthening risk management and climate adaptation strategies in complex urban and territorial contexts.
The Multi-risk Project, also called “Improvement of local management of environmental-urban risks for multi-risk scenarios in the face of the climate emergency: innovative instruments and social participation”, is financed by Capes and CNPq. The initiative is part of the efforts of the Research Network on Risks and Disasters (REPRED), which brings together researchers from the Federal University of ABC, Cemaden and UFRN.
More information about the Multirrisco Project can be accessed here: https://georisco.ufrn.br/multirrisco/
Photo credit: Maria Clara de Sena Chagas
