Indicadores de qualidade ambiental dos recursos hídricos da microbacia do Rio Cascavel no município de Cascavel/PR

Abstract

Water is a natural resource essential to human life and to the functioning of ecosystems. To do só, it must be in the environment in sufficient quantity and quality. The basins that contain supply springs, such as the Cascavel river microbasin, should receive special and differential treatment, since the water of the main river is used to supply most of the population of the city. It is known that the water quality of the river depends on the way in which the other stretches of the river are managed. The sustainable maintenance of the water resource involves, among other aspects, the development of management tools for the protection, planning and use of water resources, adapting urban or rural planning to the natural vocation of the water system. In this sense, the environmental indicators, applied to the monitoring of the quality of water resources, are indispensable tool in moments of decision making, planning and monitoring. In this context, the present work aimed at proposing a set of indicators applicable to the control and monitoring of the environmental quality of the water resources of the Cascavel river basin. Based on the analysis of systems of quality indicators of existing water resources, the definition of a methodology for the organization of indicators (Pressure-State-Impact / Effect-Response-Management Model), the construction of a cognitive map of thematic indicators objective, analysis and validation of the proposal by members of the Cascavel Environment Council resulted in a total of thirty-one indicators related to five distinct themes (Social, Biodiversity, Land Use, Basic Sanitation, Water Supply and Management).