Effects of rainfall extremes

The spatial analysis of the effects of extreme rainfall in Belo Horizonte between 2006 and 2016 based on articles in the Estado de Minas newspaper shows that the greatest socio-environmental damage generally occurs in the most vulnerable areas of the city that need attention. It was expected to find negative relationships between living conditions and the effects of extreme rainfall with the most socially vulnerable areas those most exposed to flooding landslides landslides floods and falling trees. However in addition to not confirming statistical significance in these relationships the results indicated a trend contrary to expectations. Among the possible factors for not confirming these expectations are selective media treatment; physical aspects of the city of Belo Horizonte; the lack of spatial accuracy of the data; environmental issues still being treated as a peripheral issue; unpreparedness on the part of communication professionals to translate precise technical terms into colloquial language without damaging the information; the lack of specialized journalists to cover environmental issues etc.