7/20/2023 0 Comments Environ monit assess![]() Particularly, Latin America is recognized as one of the most vulnerable regions to be affected by climate change, not only because of its increasing exposure to climate hazards but also because of its increasing social vulnerability (e.g., Basher 2006 Marengo et al. The marked increase of social vulnerability in regions such as South American and Caribbean countries is generally associated with social inequity, conflict, population displacement, poverty, lack of opportunities, excessive and inappropriate use of natural resources, among others (e.g., Basher 2006). On top of climate and environmental variability, current socioeconomic development models enhance social vulnerability, particularly in less favored regions of the world and in countries and regions within them where resource management and availability are precarious (e.g., Huppert and Sparks 2006 Mertz et al. Current and expected environmental changes lead to a higher level of uncertainty in the occurrence of potentially catastrophic events, posing a challenge to current disaster management strategies. ![]() The complex interactions between global- and local-scale environmental changes (mainly related to land use and human activities) are tightly related to the potential occurrence of natural disasters affecting ecosystems, communities, and their interactions. More generally, the authors highlight the need to develop vulnerability-centered risk management via community-building strategies, particularly for areas where little can be done to decrease the occurrence of catastrophic events. This experience allowed the effective conformation of a social network for environmental monitoring in 80 municipalities of Colombia, where communities developed a sense of ownership with the instrumentation and the network, strengthening links with local authorities and contributing to more efficient EWS. Using water-related hazards as a case study, this paper describes the experience of the conformation of a social network for environmental monitoring using this model example on vulnerability reduction in the rural areas of the central Andes in Colombia. This framework is intended as a strategy to strengthen early warning systems (EWS), where the human-related factor is among their most challenging components. This paper presents a vulnerability-centered risk management framework based on social cohesion and integration principles that, combined with scientific, technical, and popular knowledge, lead to the development of social networks of risk reduction. Most cases of enhanced vulnerability occur in, but are not limited to, developing countries, where the combination of social inequity, inappropriate use of natural resources, population displacement, and institutional mistrust, among other factors, make risk management particularly challenging. One of the most societally relevant challenges in managing the effects of these events is the establishment of risk management strategies that focus on managing vulnerability, particularly in disfavored countries, and communities among them. The occurrence of natural and socially driven catastrophic events has increased in the last few decades in response to global environmental changes.
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