Urban Resettlement, Natural Disasters and Social Network: a case study case in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

In the last decades disasters related to natural events, especially climatic events like hurricanes, droughts and floods have increased almost all around the world, causing great human economic, social and environmental damages mostly in the poor and very populous countries. The relationship between ‘natural disasters’ and migration or displacement has become an important issue in the population studies and public policies agenda. In Latin America where around 80% of the population live in cities the problem with urban water and disaster has become a critical issue for the local and national governments. In large metropolitan areas in Brazil one of the measures adopted by the governments to deal with people affected by disasters is the resettlement in new peripheral areas, usually with poor infrastructure. Given this context the article aims at analyzing the relationship between disasters related to natural events and displacement. The research consists in a case study in Belo Horizonte Metropoltian Area, Brazil that compares two vulnerable populations affected by disasters, one of which has been resettled by the local government. The method chosen is social network analysis which seeks to identify and analyze how the displacement has altered the structure of the social ties of these populations.