Eficiência do monitoramento da balneabilidade da costa marítima de Fortaleza: análise do período de 2019 a 2021

Abstract

The suitability of the coast for bathing is of great importance to society in several dimensions. There are many challenges in balancing the various conflicting interests in this environmental area. The State Environmental Superintendence of Ceará developsthe Beach Suitability Monitoring Program, with the main objective of monitoring the quality of beach waters for primary use; with a greater scope of monitoring points on the coast of Fortaleza. The objective of this study was to analyze the efficiency of monitoring the coast of Fortaleza, and used the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique as an instrument for analyzing relative efficiency. DEA uses decision-making units (DMU) to analyze their performance in using their inputs to produce outputs. Five different analysis scenarios were used, taking as DMUs the three years of management of the Bathing Suitability Program (2019 to 2021). The results showed that the lowest efficiency result in all scenarios was 82.30% (most efficiencies were 100%) and that therefore the monitoring of the bathing suitability of the Fortaleza coast can be considered efficient given the chosen sample, but there is room for improvements to be implemented.