INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF LAND BASED ACTIVITIES IN THE SÃO FRANCISCO RIVER BASIN PROJECT GEF/ANA/OAS/UNEP Activity 1.4 - Development of a Water Quality Monitoring System in the Middle-Lower São Francisco Basin Executive Summary DEVELOPMENT OF A WATER QUALITY MONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE MIDDLE-LOWER SÃO FRANCISCO BASIN: ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR WATER USAGE (ISA_Water) Jaguariúna-SP INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF LAND BASED ACTIVITIES IN THE SÃO FRANCISCO RIVER BASIN PROJECT GEF/ANA/OAS/UNEP Activity 1.4 - Development of a Water Quality Monitoring System in the Middle-Lower São Francisco Basin Executive Summary DEVELOPMENT OF A WATER QUALITY MONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE MIDDLE-LOWER SÃO FRANCISCO BASIN: ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR WATER USAGE (ISA_Water) Coordinator Aderaldo de Souza Silva Embrapa Meio Ambiente Consultants Anderson Soares Pereira Ana Maria Ramos de La Cruz Cláudio César de Almeida Buschinelli Daniela Martins Mariuzzo Ênio Farias de França e Silva Francisco de Assis Nunes da Silva Izilda Aparecida Rodrigues José Maria Gascó Luiz Carlos Hermes Luiza Teixeira de Lima Brito Marcos César Ferreira Maria Inês Martins Ferreira Osmar Abílio de Carvalho Júnior Renato Fontes Guimarães Roberto Affonso Marino Ronalton Evandro Machado Zacarias Lourenço Vaz Ribeiro Filho December 2002 DEVELOPMENT OF A WATER QUALITY MONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE MIDDLE-LOWER SÃO FRANCISCO BASIN: ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR WATER USAGE (ISA_Water) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION The Integrated Management of Land Based Activities in the São Francisco River Basin Project, the GEF São Francisco Project, coordinated several studies aimed at the development of an Integrated Management Program for the Basin. The contribution provided by Activity 1.4 (“Development of a Water Quality Monitoring System for the Middle-Lower São Francisco Basin”), consisted of a pioneer methodology focused on the creation of an “Environment Sustainability Index for Water Usage”, the ISA_Water. The selection of the Middle-Lower São Francisco (Figure 1) occurred because of the environmental impacts of the agro-industrial complex located there, of the significative disposal of domestic wastes, by the riverine communities (around 2.5 million inhabitants) and also due to the need to implement an environmental quality program, to support agriculture. The environmental sustainability of water usage is here defined as a measure of the mechanisms for water resources quality management, monitoring and control, based on the sustainable development concept. It measures the average situation of a geographical unit of reference, in three basic dimensions (ecologic, economic and social), integrating them at the end, in order to assess, in qualitative and quantitative terms, the indices’ performance. This will support political decisions aimed at the Region’s sustainable development. The ISA_Water, involving economic, social and ecological dimensions, had financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), through the São Francisco Project (ANA/GEF/PNUMA/OEA), along with support from the Brazilian Enterprise of Agriculture and Livestock Research (EMBRAPA) and from the Company for the Development of the São Francisco and Parnaíba River Valleys, and Agriculture Departments of the Prefectures in the area under study. 2. METHODOLOGIC PROPOSAL FOR THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF THE WATER 2.1. CONCEPTUAL BASE i Figure 1. Location of area under study, in the Middle-Lower São Francisco. The present work made use of the sustainable development concept made famous in 1987 by the World Commission for the Environment, adopting the definitions used by the working team of the Brazil-Germany Technical Cooperation Agreement ((ABC/BMZ). The study considered in an integrated manner the social, economic and ecologic profiles, in the assessment of the water bodies. Each profile was characterized by great themes, built based on information obtained in the field, during four years, and on secondary data provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The environmental index obtained at the end consisted of an actual qualitative and quantitative description of some of the components selected in each one of the mentioned profiles, taken as indicators. 2.2. METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS The present proposal for sustainable use of the water adopts a new approach for water resources management, with focus on two main topics. The first one suggests the incorporation of environmental management concept, supported by the ISSO 14,001 norm. The second shifts the focus on the multipurpose water usage to a regional sustainability dimension, by Basin, creating sustainability indicators. The integration of the three profiles (social, economic and ecologic) for the creation of the indicators is shown, schematically, in Figure 2. ii Figure 2. Schematic model of the integration of the social, economic and ecologic profiles, aiming at the environmental sustainability of the water usage. 2.2.1. Ecologic profile The ecologic profile of the sustainable development indicators evaluates the environmental degradation imposed by men in their use of the natural resources. It also focuses on the objectives of the environment’s preservation and conservation, considered as essential for the benefit of future generations. Environment protection, as the new target of environmental management, is difficult to be operationally conceived, given the complexity of the ecosystems. It is also difficult to identify ecologic indicators to measure the environment’s health. The ecologic profile was built with the use of an integrated analysis of 16 indicators: Lack of vegetative cover, water balance, river runoff, vicinal roads, pollution sources, evaluation of environmental impact on springs proximity to urban centers, water’s physical, chemical and microbiological quality, basic sanitation, susceptibility to chemical contamination, agrochemical loads from irrigated agriculture and degradation of water resources (see Figure 3). Most of the information collected in loco viewing the construction of the ecologic profile, were georeferenced. These primary data were collected in the field, with physical, chemical and microbiological analysis of the water, using inventory forms prepared for the Municipalities of the Middle-Lower São Francisco. The secondary data were provided by IBGE and other institutions. 2.2.2. Economic Profile The economic profile reflects the differences among the Sub-Basins, with respect to their regional economic structure. On the other hand, according to the IBGE, this profile’s analysis iii incorporates the objectives of production processes efficiency and the changes in consumption structure, both oriented towards sustainable production, on the long run. Picture 1. Water quality inventory (irrigation and human consumption). The different aspects of the environmental sustainability’s economic profile were summarized in 10 indicators: Enterprises, public finances, financial institutions, permanent crops, seasonal crops, Municipal agricultural research, vegetal extraction production, gross internal product, wages and other remunerations and local Units (Figure 3). These indicators reflect the consumption and demand of material resources and the use natural resources, by local economic activities. 2.2.3. Social Profile The Region’s social profile presents characteristics of the Sanfranciscan community, exposing its aspirations, the basic services, the commitment to quality of life and the social justice, covering themes such as population, equity, health, education, housing and safety. The main indicators were: Education, derived statistics, political participation, employed personnel, outcomes, health, life and risks of life (see Figure 3). iv The eight included indicators aimed at a presenting a summary of the social situation, of the income distribution and of the population’s life conditions in the 35 Sub-Basins in the 73 respective Municipalities of the Middle-Lower São Francisco. Figure 3. Relation among the profiles and indicators used in the multivariate analyses for creation of the Environmental Sustainability Index for Water Usage. 2.3. MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS For applying the statistical methods, matrices were built, with columns containing the diverse variables corresponding to each profile’s indicators (Figure 3). The lines were referent to the 35 Sub-Basins and 73 Municipalities. As the variables’ units were not compatible, standardization was required, which produced new data matrices (zi), according to Bouroche and Saporta (1980) and Andrade (1989), obtained from the following equation: v − xx − xi zi = , where si − x xi = value of variable “i”; i = mean value of the variable “i” and si = variable’s standard deviation. 2.3.1. Factorial Analysis Factorial analysis is a multivariate analysis statistic method whose basic objective is to build a set of variables "Fi", from the linear transformation of the initial variables Xi, called “factors” or independent “main components” (orthogonal), according to the following mathematical model (Andrade, 1989): X i = ai1F1 + ai2 F2 +...+ aik Fk + ei Each one of the “k” variables is linearly described in terms of the “k” non-correlated components (Fi). The "aik" are the factorial loads composing the linear combination. The Fi are calculated in a way that the first Factor (F1) explains the greatest parcel of the total variation in the variables (Xi); the second Factor (F2) explains the second greatest parcel, and so on. The factorial loads