GEO Brasil - UNEP

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In the same resolution CONDEC approved the General
Classification of Disasters (Appendix I) and the Code of
Disasters, Threats and Risks (Codificação de Desastres,
Ameaças e Riscos -CODAR) (Appendix II) adopted in Brazil,
both included in the referred manual.
It is important to mention that:
a) Brazil was the first country in the world to approve a
National Policy of Civil Defence.
b) This policy is compatible with the Brazilian reality and
has been showing development in the Brazilian
Doctrine of Civil Defence.
4.9.3. The Brazilian System of Information on
Disasters - SINDESB
In addition to performing their responsibilities, CONDEC,
through Resolution no. 03, of July 2, 1999, approved the
Manual for the Decree on Emergency and Public Disasters
Situations, which made official the institution of the Brazilian
System of Information on Disasters (Sistema Brasileiro de
Informações sobre Desastres – SINDESB) as well as two
standardised forms of information on disasters, both
included in this Manual:
Preliminary Notification on Disasters -NOPRED -
(Appendix III)
Evaluation of Damages -AVADAN – (Appendix IV)
Presently, SINDESB is in an implementing phase.
Considering the great geographical extension of this country,
the full implementation of the Information System is not
an easy task. For this reason the National Secretary of Civil
Defence would very much like to receive international
support to accelerate the implementation of the Information
System all over the national territory.
condition and in the quality of life of the population,
demand answers that include both the protection and
recovery of the natural environment as well as the reduction
of deep social inequalities in the production and
consumption of goods and environmental services.
Among the answers presented here some instruments and
institutions created with the objective of reinforcing the
management of the urban environmental component are
highlighted. This is the case of the recently approved “City
Acts” and the implementation of the National Agency of
Waters under the Ministry of the Environment, already
mentioned in previous sections of this chapter. Another
highlight concerns the investments and programmes that
have been applied in essential areas, such as basic sanitation,
popular housing and urban transport, all formulated under
the inclusion perspective of the environment issue.
The City Acts approved by Law nº 10.257, of July 10, 2001,
regulate clauses 182 and 183 of the federal constitution of
1988 that deal with urban policy. These Acts, when regulating
constitutional demands, gather norms related to the action
of public power in the protection of the use of urban property
on behalf of public interest. These norms relate to citizens’
safety and well-being as well as environmental equilibrium.
At this moment, the City Acts represent hope for positive
change in the urban scene. This is because it reinforces the
performance of local public power with powerful
instruments that, if used with responsibility, will allow
consequent actions for the solution or minimisation of the
serious problems observed in the Brazilian cities. These
problems include distant suburbs without services or
essential equipment, growing slums, invasions, shanty
towns and swamps. They also include speculative use of
lands, accumulation and growing urban verticalisation,
water, soil and air pollution .³
4.10. Urban and Industrial Areas
Brazil is presently a country whose population lives mainly
in urban areas. Therefore, urbanisation becomes an
irreversible process and is intrinsically associated to the
model of development in force. The pressure exerted by the
concentration of population and activities on the space and
base of natural resources; the condition of the urban
environment, expressed in the quality of the waters, air and
soil; and the impacts of this process, above all in the health
The National Agency for the Waters (Agência Nacional de
Águas - ANA), created by Law nº 9.984, of July 17, 2000, is
responsible for the execution of the National Policy Water
Resources, as well as the co-ordination of the National
Management System of Water Resources. Among other
attributes it is also responsible for the control and the
granting of use of the water in federal rivers. It performs
within an institutional perspective that favours the
decentralisation of management, reinforcing regional
instances.
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Ver Oliveira 2001 Estatuto da Cidade; para compreender...
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