Disaster and territory: the production of vulnerability to disasters in the city of Blumenau/SC

Abstract This paper discusses the relation between territory, disaster and development. Disasters are one of the most challenging issues for understanding the territory and its development. Comprehend, at the same time, an obstacle to development and a result of the socioeconomic development of the region. This study discusses the relation between disaster, territory and regional development. It is based on the assumption that disasters are territorialized and related to the form of occupation of space and the socioeconomic development of the region unevenly. The focus of this study was one of the most affected communities of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, by the socioenvironmental disaster, in the region of Vale do Itajaí in 2008. This work is divided into four main parts: 1) disaster and territory - the relation between regional development and disaster; 2) the 2008 disaster; 3) the case of the community of Peter Krauss Senior Street in Blumenau; and 4) the management the risk disaster.