Extreme rain events and associated impacts in the municipality of Crato/CE

Abstract

In the last years, the extreme rain events are causing significant changes in the large and medium size Brazilian cities because it is a country that does not know how to handle the management of these situations. This present work has as objective to identify and analyze the extreme rain events and its repercussions in Crato/Ceará (CE) city. For the development of this work, was carried out the bibliographic survey, collection and tabulation of data from the Northeast Meteorology and Water Resources Foundation - FUNCEME, of two stations located at the study area (Crato and Lameiro Stations), and it was applied the maximum precipitation methodology, which has considered the events above 50 mm in 24 hours. It was also carried out the analysis of news reports, so that can be identified the impacts of the extreme rains. Crato city in the period of 1974 to April, 2020 recorded the occurrence of 370 extreme rain events above 50 mm, being registered 216 in Crato station and 154 in Lameiro station. The events repercussions specifically occured in the rivers plain areas, due to the irregular occupation of these areas associated with the lack of urban infrastructure. The city irregular occupation makes these rains, added to the lack of spatial organization, cause several socio-environmental problems, as they directly affect the poor population that is more vulnerable because they occupy risk areas.