Application of the watershed sustainability index in the Piranhas-Açu watershed

Bibliographic Data

ID21697042
AuthorsDanilo Duarte Costa E Silva (0000-0002-5835-5002, Universidade Federal de Goiás), Henrique Marinho Leite Chaves (0000-0002-6754-0576, Universidade de Brasília), Wilson Fadlo Curi (0000-0002-7024-7127, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande), J G V Baracuhy (Centro de Tecnologia e Recursos Naturais – CTRN, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande – Campus Universitário, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil, CEP 58429-140), Tiago Pedro Silva da Cunha (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume22
Issue4
Pages622-640
Publication date2020-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWater Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1366-7017 • E-ISSN: 1996-9759
PublisherIWA Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2166/wp.2020.011
OpenAlexW3037084079
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

The current worldwide water resources issue is one of the crucial matters to overcome obstacles to sustainable development. This problem, formerly tackled in a sectored manner, is now pointing towards an analysis directed to treating the watershed as a management unit, with regards to all dimensions of knowledge and, especially, to the public participation in the decision-making processes. As an alternative to measure its performance, it has been sought out to develop indexes aimed to measure its sustainability, but there is still a lack of the use of composed efficient methodologies that also enable public participation in decision-making. This research presents a methodology comprising 15 indexes for the calculation of the Watershed Sustainability Index (WSI), followed by the application of the PROMETHEE multi-criteria analysis method and the COPELAND multi-decision-maker method. The methodology was applied to evaluate the performance of subwatersheds of the Piranhas-Açu watershed, located in the Brazilian northeast semi-arid region. The performance ordering, obtained through the application of the methods, emphasizes that subwatersheds' performances are uneven. It can be noticed that the subwatersheds' performances are still far from ideal in relation to water resources management, even in the ones that displayed satisfactory index levels

Arid · Data mining · Economics · Environmental economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Sustainability · Water resource management · Watershed · Watershed Management · Computer Science · Environmental Science · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Mathematics · Multi-Criteria Decision Making · Water Resources and Sustainability · Ecology

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