Analysis of the Sustainability of the Brazilian Coast Sub-Basin of Baixo Piranhas from the Watershed Sustainability Index

Danilo Duarte Costa E. Silva1, Joaquim Orlando Parada1, José Baracuhy2, Henrique Chaves3, and Wilson Curi2

1. Centro Universitário de Anápolis, Avenida Universitária Km, Brasil

2. Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil

3. Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brazil

Abstract: In today’s world the management of the coastal regions of developing countries has been sometimes marked by misunderstandings, culminating in an increasingly worrying scenario in terms of sustainability. In Brazil, this situation has expanded since historical misconceptions in terms of planning have marked public policies in such a way that, together with the local physical peculiarities, the Brazilian semi-arid has been considered by some as the most problematic semiarid in the world. As way to mitigate this situation, in recent years, sustainability analysis indicators have been successful in terms of application in several areas related to natural resources, but there is still a lack of water resources. To compose this lacuna, a sustainability index was developed specifically for water resources, knowledge as Watershed Sustainability Index (WSI). This index is formed by four main indicators that include the hydrological, environmental, social and political aspects (hydrology, environment, life and policy, forming the HELP acrostic) and is based on the pressure-state-response (PER). Although this index has already been applied successfully in some watersheds around the world, there is a lack of application of the index both in the analysis of coastal basins and in the analysis of basins located in semiarid environments. This paper presents the pioneering application of the Watershed Sustainability Index in a coastal sub-basin located in the Brazilian semi-arid, known as the Baixo Piranhas sub-basin, during the 2006 to 2010. The methodology was effective in the analysis of the coastal unit and the results classified in the score of 0.531 present the need for intervention from the introduction of mitigating measures.

Key words: hydrographic basin, management of water resources, indicators of sustainability