Abstract
The management of contaminated areas with multiple sources of contamination (megasites) is among the biggest challenges for the Brazilian environmental agencies, especially because aquifers in big urban areas, like the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region, are important sources of water for human supply purposes. One of the main reasons that hamper the proper management of urban environmental problems is a lack of a unified system where all information can be easily integrated into regional studies. To address this problem, a method for data integration and management using a Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed. This method was applied to the case of a regional contamination of an aquifer by chlorinated solvents at a former industrial district in Sao Paulo city, named Jurubatuba, but the final product might also be used for data management of contaminated areas for the entire State of Sao Paulo. The main result obtained was that the site-by-site approach for aquifer contamination management is ineffective. Furthermore, there are many other suspected and potential sources of contamination without any information available after more than 10 years since the contamination problem was discovered at the FIZ 131.
Highlights
The regional contaminations of aquifers, known as megasites, are zones that comprehend multiple contamination sources and multiple legal responsible parties [1]
A method for data integration and management using a Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed. This method was applied to the case of a regional contamination of an aquifer by chlorinated solvents at a former industrial district in Sao Paulo city, named Jurubatuba, but the final product might be used for data management of contaminated areas for the entire State of Sao Paulo
The material assessed for data integration included 220 reports of contaminated sites, 35 supply wells licensing reports, 4 academic reports as well as geographic information developed by public agencies available online
Summary
The regional contaminations of aquifers, known as megasites, are zones that comprehend multiple contamination sources and multiple legal responsible parties [1]. The environmental management of these areas represents a great challenge for all stakeholders involved They are the regulatory agencies, the legal responsible. Several cases of megasites contamination have resulted in the development of environmental management methodologies [1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] These methodologies usually make use of a risk based assessment for resources allocation to mitigate the impacts to specific assets or communities to be protected. All these projects have one thing in common, the development and application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These are tools to support the implementation of an integrated information management strategy, such as SMARTe [8], DECERNS [9] and those developed by Ascough et al [10] and Malczewski [11]
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