Qualidade ambiental de nascentes: proposta metodológica

Abstract

In view of the constant pressures suffered by all elements of the environment, it is understood here, the need to protect the springs, starting with its importance for society. Although the springs are worthy of protection, it is known that in practice, this does not happen in the ideal way. Firstly, due to the legal insufficiency of the protection of the springs, and secondly, due to the obstacles faced by these environmental systems, arising from theoretical and methodological gaps, which pervade the study of springs. It should be noted that some of these gaps are closely linked to the concept of nascent, its monothematic studies and its misleading reductionist and linear approach. It is at this juncture that it is understoond the need to study the springs through a systemic, complex and multidisciplinary view, capable of addressing all the peculiarities of this environmental system, and that overcome its gaps and misconceptions, aiming at contributing to an effective management and planning of these water resources. For na effective protection of springs it is necessary to know them and understand them, which consequently entails multidisciplinary investigations. It is in this context that the reflection of this research is inserted. It is necessary to raise questions, for example how to evaluate the environmental quality of the springs can be an arduous task, since, in thesis, it would seek an integration of all the constituent elements of this environmental system. In this perspective, this work aims to propose a procedure to evaluate the environmental quality of springs, in the form of a synthetic index, to be applied by the actors involved in environmental management and water resources. Thus, for the construction of the index to take shape, it was necessary to choose which evaluation parameters would be contemplated. For this, the Delphi method was used, which consists of a consultation of a panel of experts for topics of difficult consensus. It should be noted that the technique was divided into two main steps: i) the consultation itself to indicate and recommend parameters; ii) the verification of the chosen parameters and the way of integration of the same by the specialists. After the tabulation of the data from the query to the researchers, it was concluded that the best alternative for the statistical treatment of these data would be by means of a qualitative statistical analysis of them, opting for the construction of qualitative, two-dimensional matrices, where the parameters were selected two by two, through their crossing, following the principles of combinatorial analysis. In general terms, the integration of the parameters to form the index, was made from the integration of four parameters, where they were integrated in two and these two were integrated in only one. The last integration arranged, is the indicator. As a result, it is assumed that the index, final product of the crosses described above, was formed by three final indicators, which include Pressure, State and Response parameters, linked to the sources.