Gestão de riscos sísmicos no Haiti: abordagem geoética

Abstract

The geographic location and geodynamic context of the Haiti in the Caribbean Region, lead this country to a huge seismic threat. The catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010 is an opportunity to develop a culture of risk at all levels of the national territory. The vulnerability of the local population is aggravated by social, economic and environmental factors, which include the unplanned occupation of urban areas, non compliance with building regulations, a very low human development index and, in an outstanding way, a serious lack of knowledge of the seismic risk in Haiti, which is strongly linked with a secular recurrence interval of high magnitude earthquakes, together contributing to a precarious or non-existent memory of risk in society. The present research has the general objective of promoting a geoethical approach in the seismic risk assessment in Haiti, as a component of the territorial management, in order to build a better response of the society. In addition to a bibliographic analysis of key concepts for territorial management and the foundations of geoethics, characterization of Haiti geodiversity, especially its seismic context, this research carried out a reflection on strategies for the seismic risk assessment, considering the threats and vulnerabilities, with the analysis of interviews with professionals of the geosciences and the answers obtained with online questionnaires focused on the local seismic context. This approach emphasizes the importance of the ethical responsibility of geoscientists and the society when dealing with the seismic threat, stimulating new fields of discussion in geoscientific communities, promoting studies and activities related to concepts such as geodiversity, geoheritage, geoconservation and geotourism, in order to expand the level of understanding of the population and decision makers regarding the country high seismic risk.