Abstract

CASTELHANO, Francisco Jablinski. Risks and vulnerabilities from the air quality perspective. Finisterra [online]. 2021, n.118, pp.255-271.  Epub Dec 01, 2021. ISSN 0430-5027.  https://doi.org/10.18055/finis20231.

This text aims to discuss the environmental issue of air quality from the concepts of risks and vulnerabilities within geographic science. The study, from a theoretical approach, carry out a conceptual review related to air pollution based on case studies from several different cities across Brazil, and Cubatão on the southeast Brazilian coast. At first, the main risks related to this environmental problem, which are divided into aesthetic, irritating and toxic risks, are presented. While aesthetic risks are related with the degradation of buildings, while the others are directly linked to human health. In sequence, the article purposes to analyse the factors that affect the increase or decrease of the vulnerability of the populations confronted with such a problem. The complexity of this issue, admitted as a direct result of the production logic of the capitalist urban space (with the valorization of consumption and socio-spatial segregation, among other factors), directly or indirectly affects the levels of vulnerability of the population and places, justifying the need for a geographical approach to such socio-environmental problems.

Keywords : Air pollution; socio-environmental issues; risks; vulnerability.

        · abstract in Portuguese | French | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )