The focus of this work is on small municipalities (population below 50 thousand inhabitants) that cover around 87% of the territory of the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA). Based on a comprehensive integrated analysis approach using the three components hazard (climate extremes from CMIP6 future scenarios), exposure (directly affected population), and vulnerability (subdimensions of susceptibility and coping/adaptive capacity by using multidimensional indicators), the latter two using current datasets provided by the official Census IBGE 2022, we document a quantitative assessment of the risk R of natural disasters in the BLA region. We evidenced a worrying and imminent intensification of the curve of R in most Amazonian municipalities over the next two 25-year periods. The overall results of the highest proportions of R (total municipalities affected) pointed out the Amazonas, Roraima, Pará, and Maranhão as the main states, presenting projected categories of R high in the near future (2015 to 2039) and very high in the far future (2040 to 2064). The detailed assessment of the susceptibility and coping/adaptive capacity allowed us to elucidate the principal indicators that aggravate the degree of vulnerability: economy, the precariousness of urban infrastructure, medical services, communication, and urban mobility, whose combined factors, unfortunately, reveal a widespread poverty profile along the small Amazonian municipalities. Our scientific findings can assist decision makers in targeted strategies planning and public policies to minimize and mitigate ongoing and future climate change.

The objective of this study was to contemplate the role of critical environmental education in Latin America from a socio-environmental perspective and explore how environmental problems associated with justice in territories and communities face the dynamics of the complexity of the effects of climate change. They modify the economic and social dynamics that little by little strip communities of their identity and deepen inequality. Selection and recovery of the articles in the bibliographic review, published between 2018 and 2022, used to determine the state of the question were carried out with the search chain integrated by the following keywords: critical environmental education, territory, and social innovation, which make up an analysis carried out using hermeneutic phenomenology from a socio-environmental perspective. The main finding is that critical environmental education in Latin America reveals historical distortions, forms of colonization, and modes of production associated with the exploitation of nature that deepen extreme poverty. On the other hand, the region’s contradictions contribute to understanding the territory and identifying processes of social innovation that favor community life, recognizing new ways of being and living together in Latin America, whose cultural dimension and belonging follow the logic governed by the principles of binomial biodiversity and economy.

This chapter discusses the role of epidemiology and the importance of spatial analysis in understanding patterns of disease occurrence in human populations. Epidemiologists use inductive and deductive approaches to investigate the relationships between risk factors and health outcomes, using advanced techniques such as factor analysis, multilevel modeling, and causal diagrams. Spatial analysis plays a crucial role in medical geography by identifying a disease’s spatial and temporal distribution. Methods such as point, line, and surface patterns are used to analyze spatial clusters, connections, and trends in disease distribution. These techniques provide valuable information for public health decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of spatial analysis, using geographic information systems and web-based tools to track the spread of the virus. Advances in geoprocessing techniques, particularly geographic information system (GIS), have transformed medical geography. GIS makes it possible to describe, analyze, and predict spatial patterns by integrating data from different sources and spatial scales. These tools facilitate the creation of spatially explicit variables and allow the exploration of spatial groupings and relationships in the data. Considering the spatial context is essential to understand the determinants of health and the influence of the environment on individual and collective health.

This article addresses the exchange of knowledge between university student researchers and students in basic education, particularly between the 7th and 9th grades, in riverside communities in the Paraense Amazon, within the scope of the "Entre Marés" project. This initiative, developed in communities in the municipalities of Maracanã and Magalhães Barata, Pará/Brazil, emerges from a joint effort by students from the Landscape and Environmental Planning Study Group (GEPPAM) at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). The main objective is to promote environmental awareness towards the appreciation and preservation of natural and cultural heritage in these riverside locations, through an active and participatory interaction between scientific knowledge and local wisdom. The methodological plan focused on the integration of all participating actors. The implementation of a participatory work plan is highlighted, including oral presentations, the production of "speaking maps" by students emphasizing the importance of environmental education, and the identification of areas vulnerable and/or impacted by tourism activities. The collection of seeds and seedlings from local vegetation is also emphasized as part of practical activities, highlighting the importance of community action in preserving coastal ecosystems. This project highlights the importance and potential observed in the dialogue between scientific knowledge and local wisdom as a path toward environmental conservation and sustainability. The results obtained, therefore, reveal the relevance of this collaborative approach in promoting an active environmental consciousness and encouraging preservation practices at the community level.