U N I V E R S I D A D D E C O N C E P C I Ó N DEPARTAMENTO DE CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA 10° CONGRESO GEOLÓGICO CHILENO 2003

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN COASTAL AREAS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN THREE OF BÍO BÍO REGION, CENTRAL-SOUTH

CECIONI, A.1A, PINEDA, V.1B, RODRÍGUEZ, G.1C, CENDRERO, A.2, PIZARRO, A.1D

1 Universidad de Concepción, Departamento Ciencias de la Tierra, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile E-mail: 1A : [email protected], 1B: [email protected], 1C: [email protected], 1D: [email protected] 2 Universidad de Cantabria, DCITIMAC, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39.005 Santander, Spain E-mail: [email protected]

INTRODUCTION Human activities profoundly alter the coastal fringe, both off and on-shore coastline. Erosion- sedimentation patterns and rates, water quality, marine fauna and flora, landforms, geologic- geomorphologic processes, soils, land cover, visual landscape, etc., are affected by such activities (Charlier, 1989). Human actions, such as land use, infrastructure, etc., also produce rapid changes in coastal areas. These changes are often not sustainable and many areas have suffered irreversible degradation or are seriously threatened (UNEP, 1997). The quality of those areas and their ability to provide environmental services and support for human activities are therefore diminished.

Mathematical operations performed to combine indicators into various partial indices or a single, comprehensive index (Moldan and Bilharz, 1997; Cendrero and Fischer, 1997) was used. This does not eliminate subjectivity, as certain criteria must be established, as selection of indicators, aggregation procedure and weights (Mohr, 1988).

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT The whole studied area (516 km2) is located on the coastal zone of Bío Bío Region, central-south Chile (Fig. 1). Include five municipalities (Concepción, , , and ) and 20 environmental units, which were defined and mapped on the basis of geological, geomorphological, hydrological and land use features.

The main environmental problems of this industrial and urban development area are the management of natural resources, and the occurrence of natural hazards as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides and flooding (Cecioni, et al., 2000), water pollution and urban solid waste disposal sites (RSU).

To asses the administrative and environmental units, two set of 38 and 12 indicators were selected.

Todas las contribuciones fueron proporcionados directamente por los autores y su contenido es de su exclusiva responsabilidad.

Also, indicators of geological risks, as floods, tsunami, landslides, and seismicity were studied. Indicators were normalized using a 0-1 scale, as worst and best condition. Indices of pressure, state and response were gained for naturalness, source, sink and support/services components, to obtain the Environmental Quality Index EQ (Tables A and B).

In this work three municipalities (Talcahuano, San Pedro de la Paz and Penco) are analyzed using two sensitive indicators of pressure: water and RSU, as Sink of Residues component.

The concern of inhabitants about both indicators is different because the urban solid waste disposal sites (RSU) may be observed, opposite situation of water treatment.

In general, underground water, rivers and sea are the receptacle of urban and industrial wastes. The pollution of the main body water of the study area, the Bío Bío River, has a degree of pollution (nitrites and Escherichia coli) of about 90 %. The secondary body water, Andalién River, has near the 26% of pollution. On the other hand, geochemical anomalies of heavy metals were found in marine sediments of the continental platform (Pineda, 1999; Pineda et al., 2000).

Due to the fact that urban solid waste disposal sites (RSU) create visual and environmental contamination, there exists a main social and administrative concern about their management. San Pedro commune does not include waste disposal sites in his territory, in contrast of Talcahuano (dump closed in the middle of 2002) and Penco, which is, actually, the receptacle of the RSU of the neighbor’s municipalities.

Data The relation between these indicators (water and RSU) and the Index of Environmental Quality (EQ) can be observed in the following maps (Fig 2, Fig. 3, Fig.4 and Fig 5).

FIG. 5

CONCLUSIONS The analysis of Environmental Quality Index using only water indicator as a Sink component shows a little variation of the general EQ Index. Whereas, using urban solid waste disposal sites (RSU) as a single Sink component the Environmental Quality Index shows a different value in comparison to the general EQ index.

The EQ index obtained using urban solid waste disposal sites (RSU) shows the really environmental estimation of the study area.

The minor EQ index of Talcahuano is due to the production of the major quantity of urban residues/per capita/year. On the other hand, EQ index of San Pedro municipality suggest the foremost expenses in transport of urban residues. The higher EQ index of Penco municipality is expected because this administrative area receives economic benefits for the reception of urban solid wastes from the other municipalities and the investment in RSU sites high. However, the societal pressure to avoid site disposal wastes is also very strong.

In synthesis, the final Index values consent the clear observation of the distribution of environmental quality (EQ) in the study area. This reasonable classification is congruent with the really estimation of the studied area and suggests that the method proposed constitute a useful assessment tool for this region and it could be applied by the administrators for territorial planning.

REFERENCES Cecioni, A., Baeriswyl, S., Pineda, V. 2000. Geology: A New Instrument of Urban Territorial Planning at Concepción, Chile; Ethical Aspects of Geological Risks. 31st International Geological Congress. CD-ROM. August 6-17, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cendrero, A. and Fischer, D.W. 1997. A procedure for assessing the environmental quality of coastal areas for planning and management. Journal of Coastal Research, 13 (3):732-744. Charlier, R.H. 1989. Coastal zone occupancy, management and economic competitiveness. Ocean and Shoreline Management, 12: 383-402. Mohr, L.B. 1988. Impact analysis for program evaluation. Brooks and Cole, Pacific Grove, Ca. Moldan, B. and Billharz, S. 1997. Sustainability indicators. Wiley, Chichester, New York. UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). 1997. Global environment outlook. Oxford, University Press, N. York. Pineda, V. 1999. El Cañón Submarino del Bío Bío: Aspectos Dinámicos y Ambientales. Tesis de Doctorado en Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad de Concepción. Pineda, V., Cecioni, A., Pincheira, M., 2000. Dynamics Processes of Bío Bío Canyon, Chile. 31st International Geological Congress. CD-ROM. August 6-17, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tables: Index and EQ values of Penco, Talcahuano and San Pedro municipalities, (A) considering “water” as Sink function; (B) considering “RSU” as Sink function

Table A Indicators Units Min. Max. Penco Index Talcahuano Index San Pedro Indices Pressure Density of communications network km/km2 >1 <0.1 0,34 0,73 0,34 0,73 0,49 0,57 Naturalness State Natural land cover % <1 >60 11,03 0,17 5,00 0,06 1,58 0,01 Response Protected area % 0 >40 0,00 0,00 39 0,98 0,00 0,00 Pressure Inhabitants related to II+III+IV class soil People/km2 >30.000 <1.000 973,44 1 3.752,73 0,91 1.552,94 0,98 Source State Cultivated area % >30 <1 5,82 0,83 22,73 0,25 2,94 0,93 Response Territory protected for farming use % 0 100 67,59 0,68 76,85 0,77 69,44 0,69 Pressure Annual water consumption m3/km2/year >150.000 <15.000 21.298,04 0,95 134.882,2 0,11 36.974,88 0,84 Sink State Polluted river water % 100 0 26 0,74 100 0 38 0,50 Response Municipality annual expenses on water treatment $/km2/year M$ 30 M$ 120 37.174.721 0,08 100.967.078 0,79 34.644.453 0,05 Support Pressure Inhabitants density People /km2 > 1900 < 250 375,08 0,92 1.704,68 0,12 602,82 0,79 and State Area affected by natural hazards % <15 > 75 21,96 0,88 52,43 0,48 31,86 0,72 Services Response Municipality annual expenses on hazard mitigation $/km2/year 0 >500.000 1.8587,4 0,08 219.479 0,44 0 0 EQ 0,59 0,47 0,51

Table B Indicators Units Min. Max. Penco Index Talcahuano Index San Pedro Index Pressure Density of communications network km/km2 >1 <0.1 0,34 0,73 0,34 0,73 0,49 0,57 Naturalness State Natural land cover % <1 >60 11,03 0,17 5,00 0,06 1,58 0,01 Response Protected area % 0 >40 0,00 0,00 39 0,98 0,00 0,00 Pressure Inhabitants related to II+III+IV class soil People/km2 >30.000 <1.000 973,44 1 3752,73 0,91 1552,94 0,98 Source State Cultivated area % >30 <1 5,82 0,83 22,73 0,25 2,94 0,93 Response Territory protected for farming use % 0 100 67,59 0,68 76,85 0,77 69,44 0,69 Pressure Annual per capita RSU production kg/inhibit/year >700.000 <100.000 107.584 0,99 654.321 0,08 190.490 0,85 Sink State Surface destined for RSU disposal % >5 0 0,19 0,96 0,34 0,93 0 1 Response Municipality annual expenses on waste disposal $/year <2 >10 2,48 0,06 5,57 0,45 6,01 0,5 Support Pressure Inhabitants density People/km2 > 1900 < 250 375,08 0,92 1704,68 0,12 602,82 0,79 and State Area affected by natural hazards % <15 > 75 21,96 0,88 52,43 0,48 31,86 0,72 Services Response Municipality annual expenses on hazard mitigation $/km2/year 0 >500.000 18.587,4 0,08 219.479 0,44 0 0 EQ 0,61 0,52 0,59