A SPATIAL MODEL OF QUALITATIVE EXPOSURE. PROVINCE OF NEUQUÉN, ARGENTINA

Increased demand for natural resources by society generates impact that threatens its sustainability. For this reason, it is important to have an appropriate instrument to obtain appropriate capacity for environmental and land management. In this work the reference area does not correspond to a political-administrative unit but summarizes an environmental condition. Thus inferences obtained from analysis of mortality, may indicate a differential behaviour about variations in environmental conditions. The objective was to validate environmental exposure defined by a spatial model of the territory of Neuquén, Argentina, through the analysis of mortality in the period 2000-2012. The methodology used was the multicriteria evaluation with GIS. The different productive activities in the study area are selected and transformed into a single measure to compare different sites together. A gradient of sites are defined according to the adverse ambient conditions. To validate these sites, they are confronted with the deaths during the period 2000-2012. The spatial model was developed in order to stratify the territory to maximize exposure contrast. The accumulated number of total deaths in relation to the reference population average unchanged in time. Neither the dominant cause of death varied with time. However, variability in mortality rates is found by incorporating the spatial dimension. More deaths were observed in the exposure zones compared to non-exposure. In the area categorized by the spatial model as degraded area increased mortality of neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases was observed; infectious or parasitic diseases and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue.