This paper examines the impacts of recurrent high-intensity rains (HIR) on the public transportation system of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I use a novel dataset composed of the city buses’ GPS information and public transport supply and demand data. I find that: 1) HIR reduces peak hours bus speeds between 13.91% and 34.81%, 2) there is an increase in demand for the public transportation system during the most disruptive HIR, and 3) the BRT system serves as an efficient mitigation strategy against the HIR-derived speed losses. The estimated yearly wage opportunity cost of HIR-derived slowdowns is equivalent to 0.28% of the GDP of Rio and 5.07% of its yearly traffic-derived wage opportunity cost.

Covered by iNFRA, Veja Rio, and Diário do Rio

We examine how high-intensity rains (HIR) on the day of birth affect neonatal health and assess the role of urban infrastructure in mitigating these impacts. We leverage data from administrative birth records between 2006 and 2019 in the second-largest city in Brazil. Our findings show that HIR increases the likelihood of newborns' poor clinical status at 5 minutes after birth by at most 40%. Notably, these effects are concentrated in public health units and flood-prone areas. These results highlight the importance of drainage improvements, which mitigate the severe newborn health consequences by 66%.