Valoração dos serviços ambientais a partir de uma abordagem quantitativa: aplicação ao rio Jaguaribe

Abstract

Water quality problems are largely function of domestic effluents released in the environment. The environmental services provided by rivers, including your ability to assimilate and degrade wastes, are of extreme importance to society. Although essential, there is no predefined economic value for these services that are important in quantifying the impacts and costs of the expansion of human activities. We proposed a methodology for the economic valuation of self-purification process in rivers, applied to Jaguaribe river, located in the State of Ceará and its classification for water quality categories. By using the cost curves of wastewater treatment station installation and a water quality model, the organic loads were modeled along the Jaguaribe river. The amount of R$ 2,020,438.10 was the theoretical cost of the environmental self-purification service provided by Jaguaribe river to flows of 20 m3 s-1.