Corpos hídricos em áreas urbanas e perspectivas de conservação na cidade de Fortaleza

Abstract

Water is crucial to life in its many forms and states. Its accumulation on the Earth's surface gives rise to varied ecosystems with unique dynamics. When located in urban areas, typical problems of the “confrontation” between the natural and the built environment emerge, evoking the inadequate use and management of natural resources. Urban areas constitute a paradox around their water bodies, as they usually concentrate water degradation factors while their growing demand for multiple uses is verified. Given this scenario, the study focused on taking the city of Fortaleza as an area of interest and evaluating how the urban arrangement affects the conservation and/or degradation of water bodies. Therefore, the objective was: to portray the water bodies and implications of the urban context; identify where the potential for degradation of water bodies is greatest in Fortaleza and observe the link between urban integration and conservation of water bodies in Fortaleza. Using geoprocessing and remote sensing tools, the division of the municipality into Regional Secretariats was used to compile the degradation factors and, in correspondence with the integration and conservation of water bodies, attention was paid to those encompassed by urban parks. It is noticed that the degradation factors are agglutinated in the South pole of Fortaleza, with an emphasis on Regional Secretariat V due to the overlapping of records of inadequate disposal of solid waste in public places, open sewage and due to the high population density. With regard to the condition of water bodies in the perimeter of urban parks, effects are limited to the implementation of infrastructure for community use, while the composition of natural aspects does not reflect the conservation or restoration of adequate environmental conditions. In short, the city's water bodies are inserted in degrading arrangements, which implies negative repercussions on their conservation.