Historical evolution of risk and disaster management to floods in União da Vitória, State of Paraná

Abstract

The negative impacts resulting from disasters in cities have been one of the biggest issues faced by local managers. Therefore, they have incorporated risk and disaster management into their activities in order to practice prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery in their sectoral areas. The objective of this research is to analyze the historical evolution of risk and disaster management of União da Vitória, in the state of Paraná. The method, bibliographic research, had analysis of plans, legislations and interviews. The results were organized to cover the before and after the 3 major floods of the municipality: 1983, 1992 and 2014. With the occurrence of the 1983 event, the municipality was highly impacted, and to this day it is the largest flood spot that has hit the city. However, it was not believed that this would happen again, and in less than 10 years later, a new flood hit União da Vitória. It is noticed that this new occurrence, turned the eyes of several companies and researchers to try to solve the problem of the municipality. Among the measures adopted, is the creation of the Environmental Park, which relocated hundreds of families that lived in the surroundings of the Iguaçu River. This measure helped local managers in the 2014 flood, where it was observed that the history of flooding fortified the population over time as the response and recovery of these events. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of knowing the local history in the face of major floods, so as to understand how resilient the disasters União da Vitória is today.