A forte relação das pessoas com o Rio Doce, bem como suas enchentes regulares, representam fator contínuo de exposição ao risco de doenças hídricas. Dada sua relevância epidemiológica, este estudo analisa a associação entre percepção de contaminação e uso do rio, bem como os mecanismos heurísticos empregados na formação da percepção de risco. Utilizou-se um modelo probit ordenado com variável instrumental e análise de redes temáticas aplicados a uma base de dados primária de 352 domicílios, representativa dos moradores de Tumiritinga, Minas Gerais, Brasil, para o ano de 2012. Os resultados indicam que embora a maioria (92,6%) dos moradores de Tumiritinga perceba o risco de contrair algum tipo de doença quando nada no Rio Doce, somente 11,4% informam não entrar na água. A análise de conteúdo sugere que esse paradoxo advém da falta de compreensão populacional sobre os mecanismos de transmissão de doenças hídricas, criando viés otimista sobre as chances de contaminação. Campanhas para promoção de comportamento preventivo devem, portanto, enfatizar as formas de contrair doenças hídricas na região.

Climate change will exacerbate the vulnerability of places and people around the world in the next decades, especially in less developed regions. In this paper, we investigate future scenarios of population vulnerability to climate change for the next 30 years in 66 regions of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Based upon the Alkire & Foster Index, we integrate simulated and projected dimensions of population vulnerability into a Multidimensional Index, showing how scenarios of temperature change would affect each region’s relative vulnerability in the future. Results suggest that economic and health dimensions are the highest contributors to increases in temperature-related vulnerability, with the poorest and agribusiness regions being the most impacted in decades to come.

Background
The Amazon environment has been exposed in the last decades to radical changes that have been accompanied by a remarkable rise of both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. The malaria transmission process is highly influenced by factors such as spatial and temporal heterogeneities of the environment and individual-based characteristics of mosquitoes and humans populations. All these determinant factors can be simulated effectively trough agent-based models.

Methods
This paper presents a validated agent-based model of local-scale malaria transmission. The model reproduces the environment of a typical riverine village in the northern Peruvian Amazon, where the malaria transmission is highly seasonal and apparently associated with flooding of large areas caused by the neighbouring river. Agents representing humans, mosquitoes and the two species of Plasmodium (P. falciparum and P. vivax) are simulated in a spatially explicit representation of the environment around the village. The model environment includes: climate, people houses positions and elevation. A representation of changes in the mosquito breeding areas extension caused by the river flooding is also included in the simulation environment.

Results
A calibration process was carried out to reproduce the variations of the malaria monthly incidence over a period of 3 years. The calibrated model is also able to reproduce the spatial heterogeneities of local scale malaria transmission. A “what if” eradication strategy scenario is proposed: if the mosquito breeding sites are eliminated through mosquito larva habitat management in a buffer area extended at least 200 m around the village, the malaria transmission is eradicated from the village.

Conclusions
The use of agent-based models can reproduce effectively the spatiotemporal variations of the malaria transmission in a low endemicity environment dominated by river floodings like in the Amazon.

Climate change will exacerbate the vulnerability of places and people around the world in the next decades, especially in less developed regions. In this paper, we investigate future scenarios of population vulnerability to climate change for the next 30 years in 66 regions of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Based upon the Alkire & Foster Index, we integrate simulated and projected dimensions of population vulnerability into a Multidimensional Index, showing how scenarios of temperature change would affect each region’s relative vulnerability in the future. Results suggest that economic and health dimensions are the highest contributors to increases in temperature-related vulnerability, with the poorest and agribusiness regions being the most impacted in decades to come.

In an age of climate change, researchers need to form a deepened understanding of the determinants of environmental concern, particularly in countries of emerging economies. This paper provides a region-specific investigation of the impact of socio-economic status (SES) and objective environmental conditions on environmental concern in urban Brazil. We make use of data collected from personal interviews of individuals living in the metropolitan areas of Baixada Santista and Campinas, in the larger São Paulo area. Results from multilevel regression models indicate that wealthier households are more environmentally concerned, as suggested by affluence and post-materialist hypotheses. However, we also observe that increasing environmental concern correlates with a decline in objective environmental conditions. Interactions between objective environmental conditions and SES reveal some intriguing relationships: Among poorer individuals, a decline in environmental conditions increases environmental concern as suggested by the objective problems hypothesis, while for the wealthy, a decline in environmental conditions is associated with lower levels of environmental concern.

En este artículo se revisan los patrones de percepción y preocupación ambiental en distintas regiones metropolitanas del Brasil y la forma en que estos se ven influenciado por el nivel socioeconómico y las condiciones ambientales objetivas. En virtud de los resultados previos de Nawrotzki, Guedes y Carmo (2014), nos preguntamos si en la relación entre el nivel socioeconómico, las condiciones ambientales objetivas y la preocupación intervienen diferencias de percepción respecto de las cuestiones ambientales y los actores involucrados. Creemos que la preocupación puede ser un concepto muy abstracto como para utilizarse libremente como sinónimo de actitud ambiental. Además, los elementos que preceden a la toma de decisiones, como la conciencia y percepción ambiental, que son componentes clave de la preocupación ambiental, no fueron tenidos en cuenta en el análisis de Nawrotzki, Guedes y Carmo. En esta ocasión, utilizamos un nuevo conjunto de datos, recolectados en 2007, obtenidos a partir de una muestra representativa de habitantes de las regiones metropolitanas de Campinas y la Baixada Santista, en el Complejo Metropolitano Extendido de São Paulo. Estos son los mismos datos utilizados en Nawrotzki, Guedes y Carmo (2014). Mediante la expansión de la idea de evaluación del perfil ambiental con la incorporación de la conciencia ambiental y la percepción de los problemas ambientales, junto con la preocupación ambiental, utilizamos modelos de clases latentes con efecto aleatorio, asumiendo que esas tres dimensiones ambientales están relacionadas y deben modelarse juntas como una estructura latente dependiente. Los resultados obtenidos a partir de nuestros modelos indican que los problemas ambientales objetivos exacerban la percepción de los problemas ambientales, aunque la preocupación por el medio ambiente claramente depende de la riqueza, con lo que ciertos grupos pobres enfrentan limitaciones a la hora de traducir su percepción de las cuestiones ambientales apremiantes en una actitud proambiental.