RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES AND BRAZILIAN TECHNOLOGICAL PRODUCTION

Abstract

Waste from mining is the responsibility of companies and tailings and derived waste becomes one of the biggest problems, making it necessary to implement public risk management policies. The objective of this study is to identify impacts of environmental catastrophes on Brazilian technological production. Scientific publications deposited in the SCOPUS Database and patents deposited in the patent office of the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) were considered the universe of this study. The analyzed sample consisted of scientific publications resulting from research with the keywords 'iron ore', 'tailings' and 'dams'. A search was also carried out in the INPI database using the keywords 'RESIDUO* AND MINERA*. The nonlinear regression of the number of deposits shows two curves. The first is ascending and the second descending. Curves in the years 1998 and 2015 are identified. The first identifies a trend towards an increase in the number of deposits and the second represents the stabilization of this growth in the number of deposits. The search in the SCOPUS database resulted in 223 publications. The year 2007 was identified as the moment of deflection of the curve with an increase in the number of publications. It is possible to affirm that Brazil is a center that generates science in the area of ​​Dams and Iron Ore Tailings. On the other hand, it is not possible to identify any reflex of technological production from environmental catastrophes events. This suggests that Brazil is a country that does/finances science and does not produce technology in this area.