🎓Droughts, floods and One Health: a socio-ecological assessment of risks and vulnerability of (peri-)urban agriculture in the city of São Paulo

Cities are highly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events; impacts such as: Increase in extreme temperatures, increase in extreme rainfall and flooding, exacerbation of island heat, decrease in crop yields and urban food insecurity are likely to increase the vulnerability of urban agricultural systems. In this sense, vulnerability and risk assessments are essential to enable practitioners and decision-makers to recognise who the vulnerable social groups are and why, so that they can determine effective adaptation measures. 

Using the city of Sao Paulo as an example, PhD student Silvia Berenice Fischer assesses the vulnerability of urban and peri-urban agriculture to extreme weather events and current adaptation strategies from a socio-ecological perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach, she characterises the vulnerability and analyses the adaptation strategies of urban farmers. Her study aims to contribute to the development of policy options to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to extreme weather events.