Urban social vulnerability and climate change in Rio de Janeiro city associated with population mobility

This article intends to verify how climate change vulnerability and population mobility are related and how they are spatially distributed in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is among the Brazilian metropoles covering the largest urban agglomerations and containing the most vulnerable areas to the effects of climate change. In addition, the city also has one of the worst indicators for daily intra-urban travel in Brazil. Mobility and vulnerability are related through processes inherent to the formation of the occupation of urban space, such as property speculation, the evolution of the means of transport, and access to urban functions. Using Factorial Analysis and geoprocessing techniques, a Climate Change Vulnerability Index was created and spatialized with socio-economic, environmental, infrastructure, and transport dimensions. It was found that the historical processes which induced socio-spatial segregation are still reflected in the present day, through levels of population vulnerability. Among the research results is the need for the integration of urban policies and adaptive measures, principally in relation to housing and transport policies, which, in addition to be advantageous, are shown to be extremely important to increase the local adaptation capacity of the urban population to climate change.