ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AS A REGIONAL STRATEGY FOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE APODI RIVER BASIN - MOSSORÓ - RN.
Climate adaptation; Environmental management; Regional analysis;
Vulnerabilities and river basins.
Environmental management integrates relevant instruments for discussing the climate
emergency, especially in vulnerable regions such as the dynamics existing in river basins.
Within this context lies the Apodi-Mossoró river basin, and the municipalities that are the
focus of this study—Mossoró, Pau dos Ferros, and Apodi—play a strategic role in regional
development, considering multi-sectoral aspects. Thus, the objective is to analyze
environmental management as a strategic instrument for climate adaptation, considering the
regional context, the dimensions of socio-environmental and climatic vulnerabilities, and
adaptive capacity in the municipalities located within the Apodi-Mossoró river basin. The
methodology adopted will have a mixed approach - qualitative and quantitative, using the
multiple case study method, with analysis in the municipalities of Pau dos Ferros, Apodi and
Mossoró. The analyses will utilize secondary data to characterize the conditions of
vulnerability and socio-environmental risks, as well as environmental management and
adaptive capacity, based on databases from IBGE, IDEMA, and other agencies. These data
will be presented through graphs, tables, and maps using open-source software for data
processing, spatialization, and representation. Likewise, primary data will be collected to
understand how environmental management instruments relate to each other and to identify
the articulation between environmental management and multi-stakeholder climate
governance. The data will be collected through interviews with municipal managers and a
representative of the Basin Committee, coupled with the development of focus groups in the
municipalities with representation from civil society and management, and the analysis will
utilize Bardin (2011) through content analysis. In this regard, it will be examined whether the
existence of municipal environmental management strategically strengthens adaptive capacity
to climate change, reducing vulnerabilities and exposure to extreme climate risks in the semi-
arid region of municipalities located within river basins, which are socioecological systems
naturally sensitive to climate variability.