Droughts in São Paulo: challenges and lessons for a water-adaptive society

ABSTRACT

Literature has suggested that droughts and societies are mutually shaped and, therefore, both require a better understanding of their coevolution on risk reduction and water adaptation. Although the São Paulo Metropolitan Region drew attention because of the 2013–2015 drought, this was not the first event. This paper revisits this event and the 1985–1986 drought to compare the evolution of drought risk management aspects. Documents and hydrological records are analyzed to evaluate the hazard intensity, preparedness, exposure, vulnerability, responses, and mitigation aspects of both events. Although the hazard intensity and exposure of the latter event were larger than the former one, the policy implementation delay and the dependency of service areas in a single reservoir exposed the region to higher vulnerability. In addition to the structural and non-structural tools implemented just after the events, this work raises the possibility of rainwater reuse for reducing the stress in reservoirs.

KEYWORDS:

• droughts
• urban water supply
• water crisis
• drought risk
• paired event analysis
• vulnerability

Acknowledgements

This work was developed within the activities of the Panta Rhei research initiative of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) and it was funded by CNPq 141697/2019-9, FAPESP 2014/50848-9 INCT-II [Climate Change, Water Security] & CAPES PROEX [PPGSHS EESC USP]. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2022.2047735.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES [CAPES PROEX [PPGSHS EESC USP].]; CNPQ [141697/2019-9]; São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2014/50848-9].