Dr. Mariana M. de Brito
Thematic Area Environment and Society
Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology
Speaker of the Working Group Social-Science Water Research
Scientific coordinator of the Thirsty Cities Graduate School
Member of the Working Group Environmental Risks and Extreme Events
Helmholtz Centre
for Environmental Research − UFZ
Permoserstr. 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Tel.: +49 0341 235 482149
mariana.brito@ufz.de
Research interests
I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a passion for developing and integrating qualitative and quantitative tools to natural hazards and sustainability research. Currently, I am diving into the amazing world of data analytics and computational social sciences. I use a set of tools to support corpus-based investigations.

If you are interested in the research I am doing or are curious about hiring and research stay opportunities do not hesitate to reach out with concrete ideas.
News
Education
2015-2018 | Ph.D. in Geography - University of Bonn, Geography Institute, Germany (Magna cum Laude) |
01-02/2014 | Semester abroad - University of Freiburg, Germany (DAAD scholarship) |
2012-2014 | M.Sc. in Engineering with an emphasis in Environmental Sciences - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil (GPA 10/10) |
2007-2011 | B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering - Lutheran University of Brazil, Brazil (GPA 9.08/10) |
Research stays
08-08/2022 | Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Free University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam. Research Groups of Prof. Philip Ward and Prof. Anne Van Loon (COST Scholarship) |
11-12/2021 | Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ), Potsdam. Research group of Dr. Keidi Kreibich (HIDA Scholarship) |
02-03/2020 | University of Vigo, Spain. Department of Forest Engineering. Research group of Prof. Dr. Juan Vidal Puga. Research on the spatial assessment of the costs and benefits of different land uses for flood risk reduction (COST Grant) |
11-12/2017 | Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria. Institute of Geography. Research group of Prof. Dr. Glenda García-Santos. Use of system dynamics for modelling human-environment interactions |
05-04/2016 | Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Department of Civil Engineering. Research group of Prof. Dr. Luis Carlos Pinto da S. F. Participatory modelling of flood vulnerability (CAPES Scholarship) |
Journal publications
2023 (3)
- de Brito, M.M.# (2023) Cities dried-up by few. Nature Sustainability. doi:10.1038/s41893-023-01097-6.
- de Brito, M.M.*#, Kuhlicke, C.*, Bartowski, B., Botzen, W., Dogulu, C., Han, S., Hudson, P., Karanci, A., Klassert, C., Otto, D., Scolobig, A., Soares, T.M., Rufat, S. (2023) Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research. Global Environmental Change. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102672
- Moreira, L.L., Vanelli, F.M., Kobiyama, M., de Brito, M.M.# (2023) Sensitivity analysis of criteria weights for constructing flood vulnerability indexes: a participatory approach. Frontiers in Water. doi:10.3389/frwa.2023.970469
2022 (7)
- Vanelli, F.M., Kobiyama, M., de Brito, M.M.# (2022) To which extent are socio-hydrology studies really integrative? The case of natural hazards and disaster research. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, doi:10.5194/hess-26-2301-2022
- Rufat, S., de Brito, M.M.#, Fekete, A., Comby, E., Robinson, P.J., Armas, I., Botzen, W.J.W., Kuhlicke, C. Surveying the Surveyors to Address Risk Perception and Adaptive Behaviour Cross-study Comparability. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussion, doi:10.5194/nhess-2021-365
- Papagiannaki, K., Petrucci, O., Diakakis, M., Kotroni, V., Aceto, L., Bianchi, C., Brázdil, R., Grimalt-Gelabert, M., Inbar, M., Kahraman, A., Kilic, Ö., Krahn, A., Kreibich, H., Kotroni, V., Llasat, M.C. , Llasat-Botija, M. Macdonald, N., de Brito, M.M., Mercuri, M., Pereira, S. Rehor, J. Geli, J.R., Salvati, P., Vinet, F. Zêzere, J.L. (2022). Developing a large-scale dataset of flood fatalities for territories in the Euro-Mediterranean region, FFEM-DB. Scientific data, doi:10.1038/s41597-022-01273-x
- Sodoge, J., de Brito, M.M., Kuhlicke, C. (2022) Automatized Drought Impact Detection Using Natural Language Processing. Wasserwirtschaft, doi: 10.1007/s35147-022-1008-7
- Yiwo, E., Jato-Espino, D., Carracedo, P., de Brito, M.M. (2022). Multi-stakeholder perception on flood management in Ghana: analysis of drivers and potential solutions, with a focus on surface permeability. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102990
- Otto, D., Pfeiffer, M., de Brito, M.M., Gross, M. (2022). Fixed Amidst Change: 20 Years of Media Coverage on Carbon Capture and Storage in Germany. Sustainability, doi:10.3390/su14127342
- Raška, P., Bezak, N., Ferreira, C.S.S., Kalantari, Z., Banasik, K., Bertola, M., Bourke, M., Cerdà, A., Davids, P., de Brito, M.M. [...] Hartmann, T. (2022). Identifying barriers for nature-based solutions in flood risk management: an interdisciplinary overview using the expert community approach. Journal of Environmental Management, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114725
2021 (8)
- de Brito, M.M.# (2021) Compound and cascading drought impacts do not happen by chance: a proposal to quantify their relationships. Science of the Total Environment, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146236
- de Brito, M.M.#, Kuhlicke, C., Otto, D. (2021) Tracking topics and frames regarding sustainabilty transformations during the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. Sustainability. doi:10.3390/su131911095
- Lehmann, P., de Brito, M.M., Gawel, E., Groß, M., Haase, A., Lepenies, R., Otto, D., Schiller, J., Strunz, S., Thrän, D. (2021) Making the COVID-19 crisis a real opportunity for environmental sustainability. Sustainability Science, doi:10.1007/s11625-021-01003-z
- Moreira, L.L., de Brito, M.M.#, Kobiyama, M. (2021) A systematic review and future prospects of flood vulnerability indices. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, doi:10.5194/nhess-2021-34
- Fekete, Al, Aslam, A.B., de Brito M.M., Dominguez, I., Fernando, N., Illing, C., Apil, K.C., Mahdavian, F., Norf, C., Platt, S., Santi, P.A., Tempels, B. (2021) Increasing flood risk awareness and warning readiness by participation – but who understands what under ‘participation’? International Journal of Disaster risk reduction, doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102157
- Moreira, L.L., de Brito, M.M.#, Kobiyama, M. (2021) Effect of different normalization, aggregation and classification methods on the construction of flood vulnerability indexes. Water, doi:10.3390/w13010098
- Lehmann, P., Beck, S., de Brito, M.M., Gawel, E., Groß, M., Haase, A., Lepenies, R., Otto, D., Schiller, J., Strunz, S., Thrän, D. (2021) Environmental Sustainability Post-COVID-19: Scrutinizing Popular Hypotheses from a Social Science Perspective. Sustainability, doi:10.3390/su13168679
- Melo, C.M., Michel, G.P., Kobiyama, M., de Brito, M.M.# (2021) The relevance of geotechnical unit characterization for landslide susceptibility mapping with SHALSTAB. Geohazard. doi:10.3390/geohazards2040021
2020 (2)
- de Brito, M.M.#, Kuhlicke, C., Marx, A. (2020) Near-real-time drought impact assessment: A text mining approach on the 2018/19 drought in Germany. Environmental Research Letters. doi:org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba4ca
- de Brito, M.M.*, Amoradie, A.*, Evers, M., Bossa, A., Lumor, M., Norman, C., Yacouba, Y., Hounkpe, J. (2020) Current flood risk management practices in Ghana: Gaps and opportunities for improving resilience. Journal of Flood Risk Management. doi:10.1111/jfr3.12664
2019 (1)
- de Brito, M.M.#, Almoradie, A., Evers, M. (2019) Spatially-explicit sensitivity and uncertainty analysis in a MCDA-based flood vulnerability model. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, doi:10.1080/13658816.2019.1599125
2018 (4)
- de Brito, M.M.#, Evers, M., Almoradie, A. (2018) Participatory flood vulnerability assessment: a multi-criteria approach. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22, 373-390, doi:10.5194/hess-22-373-2018
- García-Santos, G., de Brito, M.M., Höllermann, B., Taft, L., Almoradie, A., Evers, M. (2018) Methodology to explore emergent behaviours of the interactions between water resources and ecosystem under a pluralistic approach. Proceedings of the Int. Association of Hydrological Sciences, 95, 1-5, doi:10.5194/piahs-95-1-2018
- Bormann, H., de Brito, M.M., Charchousi, D., Chatzistratis, D., David, A., Groser, P.F., Kebschull, J., Konis, A. Koutalakis, P., Koraki, A., Krauzig, N., Meier, J., Meliadou, V., Meinhardt, M., Munnelly, K., Stephan, C., de Vos, L.F., Dietrich, J., Tzoraki, O. (2018) Impact of hydrological modellers’ decisions and attitude on the performance of a calibrated conceptual catchment model: results from a ‘modelling contest’. Hydrology, 5, 64; doi:10.3390/hydrology5040064
- Ramos, P.A.R., Oliveira, G.G., de Brito, M.M., Silva, L.C.P. (2018) Methodological proposal for flood vulnerability mapping. Anuário do Instituto de Geociências, 41, 281-291, doi: 10.11137/2018_3_281_291
2017 (4)
- de Brito, M.M.#, Evers, M., Höllermann, B. (2017) Prioritization of flood vulnerability, coping capacity and exposure indicators through the Delphi technique: A case study in Taquari-Antas basin, Brazil. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 24, 119-128, doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.05.027
- de Brito, M.M.#, Weber, E.J., Silva Filho, L.C.P. (2017) Multi-criteria analysis applied to landslide susceptibility mapping. Revista Brasileira de Geomorfologia, 17, 719-735, doi:10.20502/rbg.v18i4.1117
- de Brito, M.M.#, Weber, E.J., Krigger, V.S., Leitzke, F.P. (2017) Analysis of landslide conditioning factors in Porto Alegre municipality based on historical data. Brazilian Journal of Cartography, 68, 1853-1872
- de Brito, M.M.#, Weber, E.J., Passuello, A. (2017) Multicriteria analysis applied to landslide susceptibility mapping: a case study in Cascata District, Porto Alegre, RS. Revista Brasileira de Geografia Física, 10, 12-24, doi:10.5935/1984-2295.20170048
2016 (1)
- de Brito, M.M.#, Evers, M. (2016) Multi-criteria decision making for flood risk management: a survey of the current state-of-the-art. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 16, 1019-1033, doi:10.5194/nhess-16-1019-2016
2015 (1)
- de Brito, M.M.# (2015) Identification of landslides scars in the Eastern Edge of the Paraná Basin based on Landsat 5-TM images. Revista Brasileira de Geografia Física, 8, 56-70. doi:10.26848/rbgf.v8.1.p056-070
* Both authors contributed equally
# Corresponding author
Books and book chapters
- de Brito, M.M., Sodoge, J. (2023) Computational Social Sciences in der Umweltsoziologie. In: Sonnberger, M., Bleicher, A., Groß, M. (eds) Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-37222-4_14-1
- Jato-Espino, D., de Brito, M.M., Eslamian, S. (2022) Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Flood Risk Assessment. In: Flood Handbook – analysis and modeling. Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN: 9780429463938.
- Vanelli, F.M., Kobiyama, M., Dávila, I.G. Fusinato, E., de Brito, M.M. (2022) An integrative approach for overcoming dichotomous thinking in natural hazards and disasters research. In: Lourenço Magnoni Jr. (Ed.) Ensino de Geografia e Redução de Riscos.
- Kobiyama, M., Vanelli, F.M., Oliveira, H.U., Basconcellos, S.M., Campagnolo, K., de Brito, M.M., Moreira, L.L. (2020) Uso da bacia-escola na redução do risco de desastres: uma abordagem socio-hidrológica. In: Magnoni Junior et al. (Org.) Redução do risco de desastres e a resiliência no meio rural e urbano. ISBN: 978-65-87877-12-9
- Ramos, P.A.R., Andrades Filho, C.O., de Brito, M.M. (2020) Levantamento histórico dos registros de desastres hidrológicos no município de Igrejinha, encosta do planalto meridional no Rio Grande do Sul. In: Ladwig, N.I., Campos, J.B. (Orgs.) Planejamento e gestão territorial: inovação, tecnologia e sustentabilidade. ISBN: 978-65-87458-07-6
- Evers, M., de Brito, M.M. (2018) Multi-criteria and participatory Vulnerability Analysis – a transdisciplinary approach to Flood Risk Management. In: Schütze, N. et al. (Eds) Forum für Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung. Heft 39.18.
- Evers, M., Almoradie, A., de Brito, M.M. (2018) Enhancing flood resilience through collaborative modelling and MCDA. In: Fekete, A., Fiedrich, F. (eds.) Urban disaster resilience and security - novel approaches for dealing with risks in societies. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-68606-6_14
- Passuello, A., de Brito, M.M., Giazzon, E., Foresti, A., Pauletti, C., Favero, E., Bresolin, J., Silva Filho, L.C.P. (2017) Tecnologia social como ferramenta para a redução de vulnerabilidade a riscos. In: Marchezini, V., Saito, S., Londe, L., Trajber, R., Iwama, A.Y., Furtado, J.R. (Eds.) Redução de vulnerabilidade a desastres: em busca de rotas para prevenção. RiMA editora.
- Silva Filho, L.C.P., Pauletti, C., Passuello, A., Bussular, C.Z., Korzenowski, C., Rocha, C. S., Giazzon, E.M.A., Costa, E.A., Favero, E., Bresolin, J.T., Fin, J., Guasselli, L.A.; Souza, L. P., Bressani, L.A., Fonseca, M.R., de Brito, M.M., Assis, M., Schavinski, M., Fontes, P.W., Alves, R.C.M., Lucena, R. B., Saito, S.M., Marchezini, V. (2015) Capacitação em gestão de riscos. 2nd ed. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. 214p.
For further info, check out my google scholar.
Travel Grants and Awards
2019 | Early Career Short Term Scientific Mission Grant - European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). Title: Analysis of the costs and benefits of different land uses for flood risk reduction through game theory. Link: http://www.land4flood.eu/mariana-in-vigo/ |
2019 | Resilient flood risk management Summer School. Cologne - DAAD |
2019 | Stakeholder engagement workshop, Land4floods Project. Thessaloniki, Greece - COST |
2019 | Citizen science & social innovations Workshop. Kaunas, Lithuania - COST |
2019 | Digital transformations in citizen science & social innovation Training School. Fiesole, Italy - COST |
2018 | Coastal floods and river hazards and management strategies Summer School. Aachen, Germany - BMBF, ICGS and DAAD |
2017 | Best oral presentation and travel award - Dangerous Landscapes Conference. Hannover, Germany - Volkswagen Stiftung |
2017 | Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE) Conference. Wageningen, Netherlands - ESRI and AGILE |
2017 | Flood risk management Summer School. Lesbos, Greece - DAAD |
2016 | THESys Summer School - Transformative human-environment research & participatory methods: from co-production to co-producing. Berlin, Germany - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
2016 | International promovieren in Deutschland – für alle (IPID4all). Viena, Austria - DAAD |
2015 | Citizen science for clean coasts Training School. Galway, Ireland - COST |
2015 | Human sensor and GIS for disaster risk management Training School. Coimbra, Portugal - COST |