Índice de qualidade ambiental de áreas utilizadas para a prática de atividades físicas e lazer na cidade de Fortaleza, CE.

Abstract

The expansion of cities is a result of serious environmental impacts, such as reduction of green spaces, noise pollution, air pollution and thermal discomfort. However, good urban environmental quality requires adequate public spaces for the use of the population and green areas well distributed throughout the city. Access to these pubic and green spaces contributes to the increase of practices of physical activities, improvement of public health and socialization of urban residents. In this way, the objective of this work is to evaluate the environmental quality of areas used by the Fortaleza population to practice physical and leisure activities, in order to create an environmental quality index of these sites. This study was carried out in seven public areas quite frequented by physical activity practitioners in the city of Fortaleza. The collections were made in the two seasonal periods (wet and dry) of 2016, during the months of april, may, june, october and november, in the morning, between 6:30 and 8 a.m., and in the afternoon, between 5:30 and 7 p.m., for the collection of suspended particulate matter (PM), carbonyl compounds (CCs) and microbiological organisms (MOs) in the air, noise, thermal comfort and socioeconomic data and environmental perception of users. The results showed that the air quality for CCs was not bad at most points; as for PM, it was good for PM10 and bad for PM2,5 at most points; and as for the MOs, it was moderate for bacteria at most points and good for fungi at all points. Sound quality was bad at all points studied, and thermal comfort was good at most points. In the estimation of the risk to human health, all the points offered high exposure to PM2,5 and only some for MP10; as to the risk of cancer to formaldehyde, all points offered risk to its users and no point offered a risk for acetaldehyde. It was also verified the great influence of climatic seasonality in all parameters studied. It was observed that the users' perception of points is good regarding environmental damage in urban centers and that the socioeconomic profile influences the environmental quality of the studied areas. Finally, the Environmental Quality Index (EQI) pointed out that the best place to study physical activity and leisure in Fortaleza was “Praça das Flores” and the worst place was the “Calçadão do Hospital da Mulher”.