Natural hazards and subjective assessment in the construction of social vulnerability to cope with natural disasters in Chile and Brazil

Abstract

From objective and subjective points of view, some of the most outstanding economic, politic, social and cultural factors that have participated in the construction of the social vulnerability with which Chilean and Brazilian local communities have coped recent natural disasters, including floods, landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis. Global factors have generated economic constraints that have been represented at local scale in the increment of social vulnerability due to the lack of public investments in protective works. Additionally, exclusion and social segregation processes have been observed, translated in a permanent and systematic human occupation of areas exposed to natural hazards, where the poorest population has been installed. Perceptions of natural hazards, social organizations forms, and local community’s expectations and frustrations constitute valuable lessons which should be the basis of the necessary social learning to avoid repetition of these tragedies.