Caracterização de áreas de restrição de uso na bacia hidrográfica do Igarapé Carrapato, Boa Vista-RR

Abstract

Water resources are gaining increasing importance in the international scenario due to the need for sustainable water management, especially with regard to the identification and delimitation of land restricted use areas. The establishment of restricted use areas is essential not only for the conservation and protection of water resources, aquatic ecosystems and aquifer recharge zones, but also for the maintenance of life in general and the feasibility of economic activities, configuring, thus, as an important instrument for the management of water resources in its qualiquantitative aspects, of interest to various sectors of society. The public agency belonging to the Brazilian Water Resources Management System (SINGREH) are responsible for establishing the rules or documents in which the restricted use areas functionalities and definition criteria are conceptualized and described in order to protect the water resources within hydrographyc basins. The lack of information, technical and scientific references about criteria for the definition of restricted water use areas as fixed in the state and federal water resources policies, form a real problem in the sense of mapping and categorizing different levels of water restriction use, whose main objective is to guarantee the efficient use of water and the concomitant preservation and recovery of the quality and quantity of water resources. Therefore, there is a need to rethink methodologies for the implementation of water resources management instruments, aiming to ensure their sustainable and rational use as well as their protection, especially with regard to the conservation and preservation of springs. Thus, the importance of this study was to characterize and delimit the restricted water use areas in the Igarapé Carrapato watershed, as only methods that introduce efficiency in economic activities can ensure compatibility between economic growth and sustainability. For the development of the project, the different environmental systems and landscape patterns of the Carrapato’s watershed were identified and characterized, following a systematic treatment of images from remote sensors. From the digital integration of spatial data through geoprocessing techniques, thematic maps illustrative of the situation of the basin were prepared, including maps of land use and occupation and the use restriction areas proposed here. The identification of springs was carried out using automatic recognition of stream segments from satellite images and aerial drone photographs, enabling a better visualization of drainage headwaters, wetlands and recharge zones. Finally, thematic maps of all the environmental and physiographic systems analyzed were made available, with emphasis on the spring found, in order to contribute to future research in the basin, to assist managers and decision makers in choosing the best practices for preservation of the environment and promotion of sustainable development and to sensitize and empower the population about the importance of springs, always aiming at the preservation of water resources.