Sustentabilidade hídrica como subsídio à gestão costeira da bacia hidrográfica do rio Maracanã, Amazônia Oriental

Abstract

Anthropogenic pressure on water resources has been increasing due to the lack of efficient management, demographic growth, and the intense exploitation of natural resources. In this sense, the Maracanã River Basin (BHRM), located in the coastal zone of the state of Pará, has particularities that involve the influence of river and tidal regimes; its potential use for tourism, extractivism, and agriculture, as well as the need to carry out research in this region, mainly through an integrated and systemic analysis. Therefore, the research aimed to analyze the water sustainability of BHRM, through the Water Sustainability Index (WSI), to support the integrated planning of the basin. The methodological procedures involved: I) construction of indicators of the Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) dimension in the water units of the basin, II) Calculation of the WSI in the water units of the basin, III) Compartmentalization of the basin, and IV) analysis statistics of results. The results showed that environmental degradation in the basin's water units, especially in the middle and upper reaches regions, it is correlated with the percentage of vegetation cover. The low social and political indicators of the municipalities are reflected in the management of BHRM. The WSI presented an intermediate value of 0.63, with the Environmental and Political indicators showing the highest values, being 0.86 and 0.74 respectively. The lowest indicators were Hydrological (0.60) and Social (0.32), which were reflected in the average final value of the WSI. Thus, advances are needed in water governance in the BHRM, which mainly involves the instruments of water and coastal resource management policies, aiming for an integrated management of the BHRM. The results can contribute to listing the potentialities and weaknesses highlighted in the research, supporting the integrated planning of BHRM.