Territorial Vulnerability Research Articles

Hot spots for risk-based planning in Greece – the cases of floods and forest fires

ABSTRACT Recent flood and forest fire disasters in Greece highlight the local spatial development history and territorial vulnerability as principal causes. However, despite the strong spatial aspects of disaster risk, disaster management rarely finds its way into spatial planning. The article attempts to locate high disaster risk areas (hot-spots) in Greece and activate risk-based planning. The approach combines theoretical assumptions on the spatial dimension of disaster risk; macro-scale hazard zoning at the national-regional level through past disaster event mapping; meso-scale territorial vulnerability analysis to delimit disaster risk hot-spots; and discussion on statutory planning tools and scales of intervention for risk mitigation.

Disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and the role of spatial and urban planning: evidence from European case studies

AbstractThis paper advances knowledge and understanding of the relationships between risk management, climate change adaptation and spatial planning as good territorial governance practices. The aim is to present evidence on how risks and their management are progressively being integrated into national planning systems in order to reduce territorial vulnerability and costs related to natural events in the European context. This paper is based on the ESPON-TITAN project which focuses mainly on flood events that occurred in Rotterdam, Prague, the Po river basin, Pori, Andalucia, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Dresden and the Alpine region. The paper reviews the literature and planning instruments applied in the selected case studies, as well as interviews with key stakeholders and decision makers. The results confirm the hypothesis that traditional disaster management is evolving towards Disaster Risk Management, clearly recognizing that Climate Change modifies and increases threats. Data on the consequences of natural disasters support the desirability of a proactive rather than a reactive approach, highlighting the crucial role of planning. The resulting governance is more "functional" than "territorial", leaving room for further advances and innovations such as territorial and multi-risk perspective, partnerships and civil society participation, and soft versus traditional hard or engineering solutions.

First as a tragedy, second as a norm: global standards and Brazilian policies on the safety of mine tailings

This article seeks to analyze the regulatory framework that supervises the safety of tailings dams on an international, national and state scale, with emphasis on the management of mining dams built in Minas Gerais using the upstream technique – considered the most critical for the risk of collapse. To do this, we carried out a deductive analysis based on a literature review, combined with an inductive analysis from secondary sources (news items, reports and standards). We argue that the standards which have gained the most support from the industry, by not expressly prohibiting the existence of upstream dams, present contradictions that reproduce rather than remedy the vulnerability of territories exposed to the social and environmental risks produced by mining in Brazil, and worldwide. Based on the analyses proposed herein, we aim to understand how the problem of tailings management has been addressed by institutions on both a national and international level, thus identifying the effectiveness of standards and policies related to the problem of upstream dams.

WEIGHTING OF WATER RESOURCES VULNERABILITY INDICATORS USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS AND GIS IN THE FEZ-MEKNES BASIN, MOROCCO

This study analyzes and explores the associated problems with weighting, aggregating variables and combining groups of parameters that control the water resources vulnerability. The Fez-Meknes basin suffers from overexploitation and the groundwater level continue to decline. The assessment of territorial vulnerability to water scarcity and climate variability is a necessity to spatially delimit the areas likely to be affected. The vulnerability factors of water resources do not have equal impacts of vulnerability. The aim of this research is to identify, with experts in water resources management and the literature, a set of relevant factors and determine the relative contribution of each factor in the vulnerability assessment. To achieve this goal, we have developed a model that combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, geographic information systems, and expert opinions to define and weigh the vulnerability factors of water resources in the Fez-Meknes basin. The study finding indicate that 21 indicators, categorized into 4 dimensions (Water Resources, Demographic-Socioeconomic, Infrastructure, and Environment), are likely to impact the state of water resources in the study area. The factor groups of Water Resources and Demographic-Socioeconomic have the highest values at 0.47 and 0.28, respectively. Meanwhile, the Infrastructure and Environment factors have the lowest values at 0.16 and 0.10, respectively.

A coupled approach for planning in vulnerable coastal landscapes

One of the most problematic steps in planning and management of vulnerable coastal systems under high level of uncertainties is anticipating potential design scenarios where multiple spatial scales interact. The mutual interference between beach morphodynamics and infrastructural needs of the wide territory poses several questions to urban planners and architects. In this study we assess the ability of the proposed coupled approach of MIKE 21 Spectral Wave and XBeach to significantly improve our understanding of vulnerable barrier beaches in urbanized areas, and hence to contribute to improved system design and management. Specifically, to improve the result accuracy and the time-computational efficiency of the proposed coupled approach, an additional module was developed. Located in the West Metropolitan Area of Cagliari city (Sardinia, IT), the barrier beach of La Playa is an important evacuation route that has experienced a coastal squeeze process under the increase in magnitude and frequency of sea storms. From an extensive beach survey, the “whole model composition” supports the selection of the territorial scale as the reference for defining a potential design scenario at the local scale in La Playa beach. While ordinary (10-year return time) storms create a nearshore sand berm with a protective function for the barrier beach and evacuation route against future storms, extreme (140-year return time) storms significantly erode the beach with a shoreline moving approximately 15 m landward and an overwash of Qcrest >20 l/m/s. Acting as a rigid impermeable obstacle against landward barrier migration, the evacuation route is destroyed. Urban planners and architects should consider the downgrade of the evacuation route as a part of a design potential scenario capable of minimizing the territorial vulnerability and reducing the local vulnerability. Rebuilt with environment-friendly functional road materials, this design scenario can also define a new flexible landward limit of the barrier beach and restore an eventual migration.

Territorial vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe: a composite indicator analysis and relation to economic impacts

AbstractThis article presents an assessment of territorial vulnerability to natural hazards in Europe at the regional level (NUTS3). The novelty of the study lies in assessing vulnerability to natural hazards through a composite indicator analysis over a large extension (1395 territories in 32 different countries), and in analysing the relation between vulnerability and economic impacts of past disasters. For responding to the first goal, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed over 25 indicators, previously grouped into susceptibility and coping capacity, and subsequently combined to obtain the final vulnerability. The main result is the spatial distribution of vulnerability to natural hazards across Europe through a normalised and comparative approach, which indicates that 288 out of 1395 regions presented a high or a very high level of vulnerability. They are concentrated in Eastern and Southern Europe, and in the Baltic Region, and the sum of their population lives in territories with high or very high vulnerability level, representing 20% of the total sample, i.e. 116 out of 528 million inhabitants. Regarding the methodology for analysing the relation between vulnerability and economic impacts, a spatial regression model has been used to combine hazard, exposure and vulnerability. The outcomes indicate a high level of agreement between vulnerability and the distribution of past economic impacts, which confirm that the indicator-based approach is a good proxy for assessing vulnerability to natural hazards. Knowing the distribution of vulnerability is of high relevance for targeting disaster risk management and climate change adaptation actions to the highest priority regions.

Mapping territorial vulnerability to wildfires: A participative multi-criteria analysis

The Mediterranean region is routinely affected by forest fires, with adverse consequences on ecological, infrastructural, and socioeconomic assets. In a context of climate change, it is crucial for fire prevention and suppression to be able to identify locations where assets are most at risk, due to environmental, physical or socio-economic reasons. Besides, this knowledge needs to be developed together with operational services and field experts to ensure their application. So far, fire risk research has largely focused on fire behavior, effects, and model simulation. In this article, we show how the concept of vulnerability can provide a flexible and relevant framework for assessing fire risk and be evaluated using a spatial multicriteria decision analysis method (MCDA) - the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)- based on both quantitative data and expert judgment gathered through a participative approach. We focus on South-Eastern France, a region characterized by high economic and environmental stakes and heavily affected by wildfires. We develop a series of spatialized indicators using ecological, land-use and sociodemographic data which we aggregate to produce vulnerability maps for three categories of assets: population, ecosystems and infrastructures. An ex-post workshop was organized with field experts to put both the approach and results into discussion. Results reveal significant differences in indicators’ perceived contributions to risk and vulnerability and enable appraising the contribution of sociodemographic factors, often overlooked in the literature. We also reveal differences in spatial patterns across both vulnerability subcomponents and exposed assets, helping identify primary and secondary vulnerability hotspots and underlying drivers. Consideration of multiple subcomponents of risk and vulnerability may help local decision makers prioritize how and where measures should be implemented, while the use of MCDA favors experience and knowledge sharing and among stakeholders while providing a basis of discussion.

Separate Principles of Spatial Planning in the Border Regions on the Example of Meghri Community

The paper aims to apply such principles of territorial planning in border areas and regions under the threat of war, which will allow to meet the primary needs of the population under relatively peaceful conditions and, in emergency situations, will reduce the vulnerability of territories and populations. To solve this problem, the issues specific to the border regions and principles of their classification were studied, which were found both in international documents and in scientific publications. In the example of the Meghri community of Syunik Marz, RA, such factors directly related to spatial planning, such as geographical location; natural, economic, and cultural resources; territorial placement of settlements; population; and infrastructure, were investigated. To solve the problem of access to public services, the infrastructures for providing the primary needs of the population were selected and categorized according to access levels. The study's findings led to recommendations for using these spatial planning concepts, which will guarantee that all the residents in the community's settlements have access to services.

Recognizing territorial vulnerabilities to Zika virus: a participatory health education model

INTRODUCTION: Considering that the engagement of the population in the control of arboviruses should not be restricted to care to avoid domestic foci of the Aedes aegypti, health education initiatives must approach the social health determinants in the territories. OBJETIVE: To describe a proposal for a pedagogical model aimed at community participation in recognizing vulnerabilities to the Zika virus and the main results of its application. METHODS: Based on Paulo Freire’s critical-problematizing pedagogy and within the framework of vulnerability and human rights, a workshop model was developed and applied in participatory research to train community health workers to diagnose local vulnerabilities to the Zika virus in a community of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Four 20-hour workshops were held in weekly meetings with 38 participants. It included activities involving territory mapping, experiences with the virus, and identifying community spaces vulnerable to the proliferation of mosquitos. RESULTS: The proposed pedagogical model identified territorial spaces vulnerable to the proliferation of mosquitoes that do not depend only on the will or behavior of its residents. These aspects are conditioned to social contexts that express the tense relationship between residents, the State, and drug traffickers with a vital power relationship in the territory. CONCLUSIONS: By transcending the traditional vertical health education model, the proposed participatory method was sensitive and timely to capture the participants’ deep knowledge of the territory of residence, not only to identify mosquito foci but, above all, understanding multiple vulnerability determinations.

Remote and connected

Originally associated to big cities' centres, coworking spaces and «third-places» have been blooming in rural regions and small towns over the past five years. The development of those places has been critically supported by local and national authorities, with a growing interest from rural localities. Indeed, those places are supposed to provide answers to numerous contemporary territorial challenges, and to tackle several dimensions or rural vulnerability. They are supposed to enhance sustainability by reducing the need to commute and car-dependence, by bringing both workplaces and services closer from home. They are also mobilised to tackle the issue of the digital gap between centres and peripheries, providing digital infrastructures and hardware. Finally, they are supposed to reduce territorial inequalities by strenghtening rural entrepreneurship, safeguarding local jobs, facilitating professional retraining and attract new residents by providing an easier access to telework.
 Conducted between 2018 and 2020 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, our study provides some elements to evaluate the effects of those places on territorial vulnerability and marginality. Based on the study of 17 coworking spaces situated in rural areas, their funders’ trajectories and their users’ profiles, we discuss the motives and the expected returns of those places, and their actual potentialities and limits.
 We first present the definitions of coworking spaces and third-places, the origin of their recent spread in the rural areas and the main features of their geographical locations. Then, we present the rationales behind the creation and attendance to those places, by analysing funders and users’ trajectories and motives. We then present the potentialities and limits of third-places on territorial vulnerability. In the discussion, we interrogate the notion of marginality at the light of those places, that can be defined essentially as spatial and social networks. Indeed, our study enlights the diversity of lifestyles in the rural areas. Coworkers display particular spatial anchorages, with local resources being valued, though combined with forms of plural and multilocalized belongings. Their relationship with the margin is chosen, controlled and reversible, sometimes even yearned for. Their connectedness is not so much defined by where they live rather than by who they know, embodying the predominantly social dimension of marginality.

A modular approach for vulnerability assessment in Southern Italy: A forest fire hazard scenario.

Vulnerability is an important component for risk assessment, representing the main element in the perception of the risk. This paper shows a methodological approach to describe a composite vulnerability index suitable to be used at the census scale. The aim of this study is threefold: at first, a new administrative limit, "Territorial Context" (TC), for the purpose of the emergency management is investigated. Second, it improves the common vulnerability methods applying different weights and a new approach of vulnerability levels classification by using fuzzy analysis. Finally, it provides vulnerability maps, which represent a simple way to identify areas where the capacity to cope with a hazard, during an event, is strongly influenced by social and territorial conditions and the road infrastructure accessibility. The proposed TC Vulnerability Index (TCVI) aggregates three indices to capture the complex realities of the investigated system that cannot be adequately quantified by a single index. Specifically, two indices measure the social (TCVIpeople) and territorial (TCVIexposure) vulnerability through an inductive approach based on the principal component analysis. The third index (TCVIemergency) provides a measure of the emergency management operating system, essentially based on the possibility of moving to safe areas, for citizens, or to coordination centers and risk areas, for rescuers. Results show notable differences in the spatial distribution of vulnerability, highlighting the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of the census area characteristics. These findings would provide a scientific base for the public decision-makers to implement.

Enhancing a Coastal Territorial Vulnerability Index: Anticipating the Impacts of Coastal Flooding with a Local Scale Approach

The coastal zone of mainland Portugal is characterized by its morpho-sedimentary diversity such as estuaries, lagoons, barrier islands, beaches, dunes and cliffs. The high population density and the multiplicity of land use, occupation and activities, makes it an area of great national strategic value. This transforms the coastal zone into a multi-hazard zone, where the occurrences related to coastal flooding and overtopping stand out. In the present work, a multidimensional methodology called Coastal Territorial Vulnerability Index (CTVI) was developed and applied in three selected areas with a historical record of coastal impacts, to analyze, evaluate and interpret the local vulnerability. The methodology considers four components of coastal territorial vulnerability: morphology, land value, buildings and public areas characteristics. These four components are combined to calculate the CTVI. The results highlight the differences for the analyzed areas, allowing the differentiation of natural and artificial areas. In the natural areas a moderate CTVI predominates, while in the latter, a high and very high CTVI stands out. The results contribute to the development of a comprehensive coastal flood risk assessment and forecasting the impacts.

Possible Increases in Floodable Areas Due to Climate Change: The Case Study of Calabria (Italy)

Coastal flooding is an important current issue due to climate change and due to significant increases in anthropogenic pressures observed in the second half of the last century. Indeed, climate change has been causing an increase in the frequency and the intensity of various natural events such as floods and sea storms; anthropogenic pressures have caused an increase in impermeable surfaces with negative consequences on the vulnerability of territories under the action of natural events. In this paper, we analyze the effects of climate change in terms of possible increases in floodable areas and in terms of population, infrastructure, coastal dunes, and sites of social, economic, and strategic interest exposed along the coasts of the region of Calabria in southern Italy. Calabria was chosen as a case study due to its geomorphological peculiarities and its considerable anthropogenic pressures. These peculiarities cause significant variability of weather and sea conditions among the different coastal areas, which influences the coastal dynamics and the characteristics of meteorological events. The main results show that, in the analyzed areas, the floodable areas double between current and future scenarios, involving both significant percentages of the population and railways, highways, industrial areas, and coastal dunes.

Траектории финансового развития регионов российской Арктики

Priority development of the Arctic territories is particularly relevant in conditions of unstable en-vironmental balance, significant climate change, and territorial vulnerability. The Arctic regions have com-mon natural and climatic conditions, geographical location, the availability of natural resources on their territory, the level of technical and technological development of the branches of the national economy, however, they are characterized by heterogeneous conditions of socio-economic development, therefore, the imbalances in the functioning of these regions are manifested more clearly. Elimination or levelling of the emerging interregional imbalances is an objective necessity for the sustainable development of regions, ensuring their financial stability. The authors, on the basis of private financial indices (budget, economic, investment), carried out a pinpoint adjustment of the development of the Arctic territories and determined the trajectories for the implementation and expansion of potential financial opportunities, taking into account the identified threats and drivers that affect the economy of the region. This approach made it possible, firstly, to assess the financial capabilities of the regions in terms of different aspects (budgetary, economic, etc.,); secondly, to identify the dynamics of their financial development; and, thirdly, to rank the regions according to the level of financial solvency. As a result, three clusters were identified: regions with a high value of the economic index; regions with a high value of the investment index and regions with a high value of the budget index. For each group, a vector of financial development has been determined, which makes it possible to effectively use all the possibilities of the Arctic regions to ensure their both social and financial and investment development.

Systemic vulnerability of coastal territories to erosion and marine flooding: A conceptual and methodological approach applied to Brittany (France)

The attractiveness of the coasts tends to increase their exposure to erosion and marine flooding risks. This exposure is exacerbated by the effects of climate change, in particular sea level rise. To contribute to strategic thinking on the vulnerability of coastal areas, it is essential to develop, share and collectively maintain relevant knowledge on risks. This article will present the thinking behind the setting up of a coastal risks observatory in Brittany, a region located in north-western France. It relies on a conceptual approach to systemic vulnerability based on four components: hazards, assets, management, and social representations. Hazards and assets underpin the notion of risk and tend to increase the vulnerability, management tends to mitigate it, and representations can play a part in increasing or decreasing it depending on the context. To understand and analyse this system of vulnerability, our approach is based on the generation of a set of 62 indicators combined into different types of indices. A web-GIS interface was developed to navigate through and map this system of vulnerability. The difficulties associated with this type of synthetic approach will be discussed, whether they are related to data availability, to the links between scientific research and operational territorial management requirements, or to an understanding of the dynamics of all of the vulnerability components and their interactions. Ultimately, the approach developed has been successful in mobilising scientific and operational stakeholders around the co-construction of a diagnosis of territories with regard to their vulnerability to coastal risks.

Territorial Energy Vulnerability Assessment to Enhance Just Energy Transition of Cities

Energy poverty is a crucial concept in current global energy policy, both for the importance of securing equitable access to high-quality energy services to all human populations and to advance toward a just energy transition to a decarbonized economy. Nonetheless, one of the limitations of this concept due to its focus at the household scale, it has tended to omit relevant energy conditions at a territorial scale, which can also be a dimension of significant deprivation (e.g., transportation, schools, hospitals, public services, industrial uses among others.). On the other hand, energy services are highly dependent on context: on the geographic, ecological, technical, economic, and sociocultural conditions. This context-dependency determines the range of energy and technological alternatives available in a territory. Hence, a conceptual framework is required to better understand the starting point to a just energy transition, capable of integrating the complexity of socio-techno-ecological systems. To fill this gap, we present a framework based on the concept of Territorial Energy Vulnerability (TEV), defined as the propensity of a territory to not guarantee equitable access—in quantity and quality—to resilient energy services that allow the sustainable human and economic development of its population. That is a greater probability of inequity in access to energy services or a significant impacts derived from socio-natural risks that make it incapable of guaranteeing a sustainable and resilient provision of these services. Built on state-of-the-art conceptualizations of risk, we develop an indicator-based framework on vulnerability understood as the combination of sensitivity and resilience characteristics of socio-techno-ecological systems. Sensitivity relates to economic, demographic, infrastructure, technology, culture, and knowledge characteristics of socio-techno-ecological components. Meanwhile, resilience is presented in a three-dimensional framework based on flexibility, register, and self-transformation capacity of socio-techno-ecological systems. An application of this framework is developed using three case studies: Arica, Los Andes and Coyhaique, all Chilean cities with diverse ecological, technical, economic, and sociocultural conditions that shape territorial vulnerability. Using this framework as a diagnostic tool, the development of a just energy transition could adapt existing concepts of energy poverty and decarbonization pathways into context-specific guidelines and policies.

GIS-based volcanic hazards, vulnerability and risks assessment of the Guallatiri Volcano, Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile

This paper introduces the first GIS-based volcanic hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment of Guallatiri volcano. Volcanic hazard assessment is based on the study of five key volcanic phenomena observed during Holocene eruptions of Guallatiri volcano: i) tephra transport, dispersal and deposition; ii) flooding by lahars; iii) lava flows; iv) pyroclastic density currents; and v) ballistic projectiles. A qualitative approach is considered, assuming a relative probability of occurrence for each scenario. Hazard maps are constructed via computer modelling based on field data and some volcanic analogues and relative probability values are assigned to each scenario (the lowest magnitude/intensity scenario has the highest probability value and vice versa). After summing them up through the raster calculator tool, the result corresponds to an integrated volcanic hazard map, that shows the areas likely to be adversely affected by different volcanic processes. Vulnerability was assessed through its social, physical and territorial components considered by dividing the study area into basic administrative units (rural entities), according to the 2017 Chilean Census. Social vulnerability is evaluated through density of people, education qualification, and dependence index. Physical vulnerability is evaluated through the number of houses, and territorial vulnerability, through a critical infrastructure cadaster. A vulnerability level is assigned according to the vulnerability indicator intervals using the quantile method. In order to evaluate the overall risk, the integrated hazard map and vulnerability assessments are aggregated through the arithmetic multiplication of the layers. Consequently, three thematic risk maps are obtained: social, physical and territorial. This analysis depicts that ash transport, dispersal and fallout, indeed has the greatest impact because it is more widely distributed. If a high magnitude eruption occurred during autumn, winter or spring/summer, ash cloud movements would be to the NW, E or SE, respectively reaching Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. For volcanic processes closest to the volcanic edifice, the higher risk areas would be located towards the N, NW, and SW of the volcano affecting areas up 13 km to the localities of Chungará Viejo, Ancuta, and Guallatiri. In the case of explosive events, areas prone to be affected by tephra deposition could be blanketed with layers up to 50 cm thick, while flooding by bulky lahars could extend for up to ~19 km, and pyroclastic density currents up to ~10 km, whereas for effusive events, lava flows would extend for up to ~7 km. Consequently, the places identified here as those being at highest social risk are Nigramalla, Ancuta, and Guallatire. Due to its remoteness, this volcano and their hazards/vulnerability/risks have been underestimated so far. A future eruption will threaten these areas and the local economy mainly related to the tertiary (e.g., tourism), and primary (e.g., livestock) sectors.

City, Gender and Climate Changes: Parelheiros as a case study in the capital of São Paulo

Abstract This article discusses the results of a study completed in zones with social and territorial vulnerability in Parelheiros, south region of the city of São Paulo SP, through the partnership between existing communities of the area and two civil society organizations: CPCD - Popular Center of Culture and Development and Ibeac - Brazilian Institute of Studies and Community Support. The context for the analysis was to recognize that populations settled in situations of incomplete urbanization are more exposed to risks arising from the effects of climate change and, for this reason, should receive attention from initiatives capable of strengthening them socially and economically to face these risks. In this scenario, women and children are identified as the most vulnerable groups among the vulnerable. By paying attention to their specific conditions, important demands from the entire community are also addressed.

Analysis and modelling of territorial vulnerability to epidemiological diseases in the Wilaya of Batna (Algeria) – case of tuberculosis

Some epidemiological situations, because of their magnitude and their propagation dynamics, can escape local or national control. For example, the world is currently experiencing an uncontrollable cross-border spread of the corona virus (Covid-19). The Wilaya of Batna is among the most affected in Algeria by many epidemiological diseases, including tuberculosis, which raises questions about possible causal links between this contagious and often fatal disease and the environmental and socio-economic reality of this territory. We based our study on a number of factors, covering economic, societal and health aspects, which constitute indicators of the standard of living in each of the 61 communes of the Wilaya of Batna. The relationship between the epidemiological status of tuberculosis in these communes and these indicators showed significant correlations and thus confirmed the reliability of the choice of parameters of vulnerability to tuberculosis. To understand their interaction and impact on the disease and its spatial distribution, we used the hierarchical multicriteria analysis (AHP) method, the results of which were implemented in a GIS database. The aim was to provide health and territorial decision makers with a decision support tool. The results show that the spatial distribution of tuberculosis cases which reappeared in the Wilaya of Batna after its eradication since years is in good correlation with the socio-economic situation of each commune of the territory and confirm that this scourge of tuberculosis is closely linked to the degradation of the living conditions of the inhabitants.

NEOXTRATIVISM AND THE SAMARCO DISASTER: HISTORICAL CONSTRUCTION OF VULNERABILITY IN ANCHIETA (ES, BRAZIL) IN A MINING-DEPENDENCY CONTEXT

Abstract The aim of the current article is to analyze vulnerability in the municipality of Anchieta, Espírito Santo State (ES), Southeastern Brazil, as a historical process, by taking into consideration the implementation of the mining company Samarco in the 1970s as part of the large-scale industrial project policy put in place in the state. Assumingly, as modernization advances, disaster risks emerge within a context of territorial vulnerability, whose effects are not limited to a specific moment in time. Based on interviews conducted with the local population and on consultations in macro-economic data, the study has identified that (1) the vulnerability of Anchieta is correlated to the global modernization process, to the core-periphery model implemented in Latin America and to neoextractivist mining-dependency; (2) the territorial heteronomy renders Anchieta dependent on Samarco operations. In light of Fundão dam’s disaster in the municipality of Mariana, Minas Gerais State (MG), the vulnerability of Anchieta became evident after Samarco operations were interrupted.