Watershed Committees Research Articles

Benefits of Conservation Agriculture in Watershed Management: Participatory Governance to Improve the Quality of No-Till Systems in the Paraná 3 Watershed, Brazil

Adoption of best soil and water management practices is desirable for sustainable production intensification. However, farmers have difficulties in adopting them within a system approach to management, missing out on positive results for themselves and for society. A partnership between the Brazilian No-Till Farmers Federation and Itaipu Binacional authority adopted a participatory management strategy, as proposed by the National Water Resources Policy, allowing important decisions regarding the use of water to be made in participatory Watershed Committees, to address such farmers’ difficulties. In this paper, we review the development and application of the Participatory Quality Index approach based on the principles of conservation agriculture to improve the quality of no-till systems in the Paraná 3 watershed within the Cultivating Good Water program. We analyze the available documentation and experiences of the program’s executors, highlighting the results from the perspective of sustainability of multiple uses of water in a watershed.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE WATER CRISIS IN SÃO PAULO OFFERED BY THE WATERSHED COMMITTEES

Abstract The water crisis in São Paulo between 2013 and 2015 was considered one of the greatest in the history of the state, and it was widely covered by the Media. The issue is how groups that are expected to provide information (as they are considered Government bodies, such as the case of the Watershed Committee) tackled the water crisis in São Paulo. This defining issue has driven this quanti-qualitative research on news published in the websites of Watershed Committees that manage the Cantareira System (Committees of Alto Tietê and Piracicaba, Capivari, and Jundiaí -PCJ) and the Brazilian Network of Watershed Organisms (Rebob - Rede Brasil de Organismos de Bacias Hidrográficas).

An Approach for Supporting Problem Structuring in Water Resources Management and Planning

The watershed committees in Brazil often face difficulties to find out consensus solution for problems in water resources management and planning, due to multiple participants with different backgrounds, differences of opinion, conflict of interests and differences in perceiving and interpretation of problem and solution. This situation results in conflicts and consequently put activities of committees at risk. The Problem Structuring Methods – PSMs are techniques to structure problems and analyze similar type of problems. PSMs offer a way of representing the situation to provide clarity to participants in understanding the problem and lead to converging on potential agreeable actions for at least partial resolutions. This paper presents a group decision approach for supporting water resources management and planning, based on the use of the PSM Strategic Options Development and Analysis – SODA, which performs the cognitive mapping of individuals. The approach promotes a common understanding about a complex situation under investigation, assisting the group in identification of a course of actions for solving the problem. The approach is intended to support Brazilian watershed committees and it was applied to the committee of the Paraiba River watershed in northeastern Brazil. Using this approach, the committee identified inadequate watershed management as a major issue that must be undertaken in order to achieve mitigation of watershed degradation.

Integrative negotiation model to support water resources management

By following the steps of the Integrated Water Management (IWM) approach in the European Union, Brazil has moved from a top-down approach to water management to a participatory one that involves different segments of society. Since decisions regarding water affect all economic activities, the environment and life in communities, it is important that society takes an active part in opportunities to discuss and collectively decide on water issues. When this is done, multiple perspectives can be taken into consideration such that the sustainability of water management and planning is more likely to be maintained. Nevertheless, many conflicts arise from society having to share water, a limited resource, for multiple uses. The volume of water needed and the way it is used for certain activities, such as by agriculture and industry, can negatively impact its availability and quality for other uses. This paper proposes an integrative negotiation model to assist watershed committees (WSCs) to deal with conflicts regarding water pollution. In a pre-negotiation phase the decision-makers (DMs) use the Strategic Options Development Analysis (SODA) method to structure the problem and to identify the relevant factors of the decision problem. DMs evaluate the problem from a multi-attribute perspective. Additionally, a post-negotiation phase is proposed with evaluation criteria to monitor how the compromise solution chosen is affecting the quality of water and if the actors are fulfilling their parts of the agreement. A virtual case study is presented to illustrate the applicability of the model, where three DMs are considered as part of a WSC, namely a representative of civil society, a representative of the public sector, and a representative of water users. The WSC has used social, economic and environmental attributes to evaluate proposals and counter proposals. They have arrived at a balanced agreement, taking into consideration their interests. The model helps reduce conflicts between the DMs and it is flexible in the sense that it can be applied in different conflicts and contexts. It is also easy to implement in most WSCs.

Group Decision Methodology to Support Watershed Committees in Choosing Among Combinations of Alternatives

A group decision-making methodology is proposed that permits each member of a group to state his or her preferences with respect to combinations of alternative solutions to a problem during a collective process to arrive at a compromise via a special voting procedure. The possible combinations of alternatives are systematically generated using an option form approach. Decision-makers (DMs) individually rank combinations based on their preferences by providing ordinal information in an interactive way, reducing the cognitive burden of making many comparisons or defining tradeoffs. In this approach, each DM expresses his or her preferences using logical preference statements regarding combinations of alternatives. A group recommendation is obtained after aggregating the final individual ranks through a voting procedure, and a voting support system, based on classification by quartiles. The voting procedure is simple and transparent for voters and does not present severe computational difficulties, thereby making this approach an appropriate tool for employment in the context of group-decision making. To illustrate its applicability, the proposed methodology is applied to a realistic decision problem faced by a watershed committee in Brazil.

<b>Estudo da correlação entre ICMS Ecológico e estrutura político-administrativa ambiental nos municípios brasileiros

O ICMS Ecológico (ICMS-E) é um instrumento de política ambiental atualmente implementado em 16 estados brasileiros. Estudos discutem sua efetividade no incentivo à criação de Unidades de Conservação, melhoria das ações voltadas à preservação ambiental e capacidade de compensação financeira para municípios que tenham limitações em usufruir economicamente da totalidade de sua área. Entretanto, um assunto pouco discutido é a capacidade de incentivar e possibilitar a existência de estrutura político-administrativa específica para o meio ambiente. Assim, este trabalho apresenta a importância dessa estruturação em âmbito municipal e o estudo da correlação entre o ICMS-E e a estrutura político-administrativa relacionada ao meio ambiente nos municípios brasileiros. Foram utilizados dados da Pesquisa de Informações Básicas Municipais (MUNIC) de 2013, feita pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), para identificar a correlação entre ICMS-E e a existência de órgãos e de instrumentos relacionados à preservação ambiental. Os resultados indicaram que o ICMS-E influenciou os municípios a integrar Comitês de Bacia Hidrográfica, ter Conselho Municipal do Meio Ambiente, Fundo Municipal do Meio Ambiente, Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente e criar legislação específica para tratar da questão ambiental.

Paternalism or participatory governance? Efforts and obstacles in implementing the Brazilian water policy in a large watershed

In many countries, governmental systems and their areas still mirror vanished historical logics rather than contemporary active citizenship based on environmental units. The Brazilian Water Act from 1997 institutionalizes the watershed as the planning unit and the creation of participatory watershed committees. What is the state of this radical shift in governance? Will the notorious system of alliances among powerful actors again impede participation of the broader public? How are the social actors dealing with their role as committee members? We establish our reasoning based on literature, documents published by a selected committee, observations while attending a plenary session, and carrying out key person interviews and a survey among members. Constellation analysis has been used to visualize the complex governance setting. The São Francisco River is a challenging case, as its watershed comprises a very large, heterogeneous and, about half of it, semiarid area. Sixty-two voluntary committee members are to govern the area of 16.6million inhabitants. The established multi-level governance system (municipal, state, regional and federal scale) co-exists—external and internal frictions are unavoidable. So far, it appears that the governmental agencies are not yet ready to share responsibility. The committee members themselves are in a process of learning by doing. If participation is really wanted—in the study watershed and similarly others in the world—then both members of line organizations and the watershed committee need to build up more trust and should champion for the common goal. Nonetheless, controversies about the allocation and management of scarce water resources will continue be a tough challenge for the various actors.

A CONJUNTURA DOS INSTRUMENTOS DA POLÍTICA ESTADUAL DE RECURSOS HÍDRICOS DO ESTADO DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Despite being a pioneer in establishing the Water Resources Law, the State of Rio Grande do Sul has not yet consolidated its own Water Resources System, neither has it implemented the legal instruments. The obstacles are the absence of Hidrographic Regional Agencies, the non-consolidation of planning tools, which are the basis for all other legal instruments and poor implementation of management tools. Besides of this, there is a perceived need to develop strategic tools to inform and mobilize society to actively participate in the planning processes of watersheds at the Watershed Committees. Among the management perspectives, there is the need for establishing the Water Resources Law, through the consolidation of planning, management and strategic tools. Only so will it be possible to solve the problems presented and really protect water, this precious resource. Keywords: water resources, management, planning, management.

Barragem e transposição do Rio Macabu: conflitos gerados pelo uso da água e a integração de bacias hidrográficas no gerenciamento de recursos hídricos

This paper addresses issues related to the dam and the River Macabu diversion which present major conflicts of water use and incompatibilities with the principles of the National Water Resources Policy - PNRH. According to Federal Law No. 9,433 / 97, which established the PNRH, the management of water resources must provide multiple uses of water, prioritize human supply, consider the watershed as a management unit, and recognize water as a public good endowed with economic value. However, when we observe some specific cases related to the pressures of existing demands, as the case of water diversion of the River Macabu to the Macae River Basin, many issues regarding the PNRH are not entirely considered, making it necessary to find institutional solutions for the integration between the watersheds, such as: transfer of resources from payments for water use; implementation of projects of conservation and preservation of water sources; and establishment of partnerships that seek to resolve conflicts regarding the use of water resources. Thus, this work assesses the interference that the dam and the water diversion in Macabu River Basin; the Basin Plans under construction and the existing ones; and the participation of local government and civil society in the Watershed Committees. The objective is to assess possible changes in the current context of degradation of the Macabu Basin, as it was not adequately included in the water management.

A Gestão dos Recursos Hídricos e a Cobrança pelo seu Uso

A agua e um dos temas ambientais mais discutidos em âmbito mundial. O que se percebe e que o uso dos recursos hidricos esta sendo feito de forma descontrolada por multiplos setores, prejudicando sua qualidade e sua quantidade. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar os principais instrumentos de gestao dos recursos hidricos e, dentre eles, ha a cobranca pelo uso da agua, que existe na legislacao brasileira desde 1994. Os Comites de Bacias sao entidades responsaveis pela gestao dos recursos hidricos e pela implementacao da cobranca pelo uso da agua, que se da inicialmente nas industrias e na agricultura.

Community participation and implementation of water management instruments in watersheds

O modelo atual de gestão dos recursos hídricos no Brasil é descentralizado, participativo e integrado, e tem como unidade de planejamento a bacia hidrográfica. Baseia-se na atuação de comitês de bacia, sendo que cada comitê possui composição e regras de funcionamento próprias, regidas por seu estatuto, os quais apresentam semelhanças básicas. Os princípios básicos desta gestão foram ditados pela Constituição Brasileira de 1988 e detalhados pela Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos em 1997. Em nível estadual, São Paulo promulgou sua Política Estadual de Recursos Hídricos em 1991. Este artigo faz análise do processo de participação nos comitês de bacia do Estado de São Paulo e suas implicações na implementação dos instrumentos de gestão de recursos hídricos, por meio de um estudo de caso no Comitê da Bacia Hidrográfica do Tietê - Jacaré, adotando como metodologia a aplicação de questionários aos seus membros titulares da gestão 2009-2011. Observou-se engajamento e integração entre seus diversos integrantes. Mesmo assim, os resultados encontrados apontam para a necessidade de revisão do estatuto deste comitê, sendo evidenciadas distorções causadas pelas divergências entre a legislação estadual e a federal, principalmente quanto aos segmentos participantes e atores envolvidos. Mostraram também a necessidade de uma maior divulgação das questões de recursos hídricos nesta bacia e no Estado de São Paulo, como um todo. Ao mesmo tempo, recomenda-se colocar esforços para ampliar o exercício da representatividade das instituições no comitê e fortalecer os resultados dos trabalhos desenvolvidos nas câmaras técnicas no espaço de tomada de decisão do comitê de bacia hidrográfica.

REFLEXÕES SOBRE A POLÍTICA ESTADUAL DE RECURSOS HÍDRICOS DO RIO DE JANEIRO A PARTIR DA IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DOS COMITÊS DE BACIA HIDROGRÁFICA

Water had global significance, and its multiple use need to be regulated. In Brazil, public policies were created to manage water resources, and the Watershed Committees were assigned with an essential coordinating role. This paper seeks to reflect on the process of implementation of these entities in the State of Rio de Janeiro. It was found that each committee has different responsibilities as regards their power and governance, as well as that construction of management tools, although far advanced, is not yet complete. We point out the need for an education program for the management of water resources to consolidate citizen participation.

A Multicriteria Group Decision Model to Support Watershed Committees in Brazil

The involvement of multiple decision makers in water resources management can be very complex, involving the possibilities of conflicts amongst the stakeholders and the influence of powerful members over the preference of others. The inherent characteristic of decisions also increases this complexity due to many alternatives being involved and there being multiple criteria. Some of these criteria conflict with each other and the consequences of which will have great impact on those involved and on third parties. Therefore, a group decision support system model based on multicriteria analysis can be a powerful tool to support this kind of management. This study presents a tool to support the committee responsible for the management of the watersheds in Brazil in order to promote decentralization and the participation of all involved in the water resources management. The tool provides a ranking of alternatives for the environmental recuperation of the watershed through the use of the multicriteria method PROMETHEE II. For each decision maker, the alternatives were ranked and then the individual rankings were combined into a global ranking which contained the preferences of the whole group.

Proposal of a system‐based model to simulate river water quality in São Paulo state – Brazil

PurposeIn order to help watershed committees improve Basin Planning, the purpose of this study is to propose to apply system dynamic models to understand watershed conditions and to evaluate the main aspects of human impact on water quality for Brazilian rivers.Design/methodology/approachThis work makes use of the energy system language to propose a system modeling. The river is longitudinally modeled as a web of inter‐connected compartments and individually described for each control volume by differential equations.FindingsThe model considers particular and significant characteristics such as turbidity and sedimentary organic matter content of São Paulo State rivers and results in ordinary differential equations that are adequate to the Brazilian water quality database. It is expected that simulation will provide the longitudinal and temporal dynamic behavior of total phosphorus, biomass, dissolved oxygen, organic matter, benthonic organisms and fishes that will be used to evaluate future scenarios and to identify sustainable public policies for the Basin.Originality/valueWater quality simulators available in developed countries are strongly dependent on an extensive series of observed data, most of which are not available for the Brazilian rivers. The model here proposed is adapted to the current Brazilian water quality monitoring system, which provides historic series of observed data of pollution sources and water quality parameters along the stream.

CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN THE DECENTRALISATION OF BRAZIL'S WATER RESOURCES: ASSESSING PARTICIPATION IN THREE STATES

ABSTRACTDecentralisation, the transfer of powers to a lower level of government, is thought to encourage more efficient and equitable management of natural resources. Participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) is considered critical to create positive outcomes of decentralisation. Here we examine aspects of civil society participation in decentralised management using the case of Brazil's water resources management. Several Brazilian states have enacted reforms mandating watershed committees in which the participation of civil society is either encouraged or required. However, actual participation of civil society is not yet well understood. To assess participation, we collected qualitative data on watershed districts in three Brazilian states (Bahia, Paraná and São Paulo). Our findings reaffirm the importance of the state in establishing a transparent legal framework to encourage participation and in defining “civil society”. The ability of civil society leaders to obtain and deploy local environmental knowledge, which frames environmental issues in new geographical scales, is useful to achieve the efficiency and efficacy objectives of decentralisation. However, by “upscaling” political activities beyond decentralisation's new territories, CSOs could make decentralisation irrelevant to local environmental issues.

Changing Objectives: Chicago Metro Floodwater Plan

Within the Chicago metropolitan area there was an urgent need to formulate floodwater management plans which would be accepted by local citizens and agencies and also satisfy requirements for Federal participation in implementation. The process was one of establishing watershed steering committees with close citizen, community and agency involvement from a grassroots level. Technical assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service and local sponsors. The process encouraged formulation of plans that contained a unique balance of structural and nonstructural elements which merged into a comprehensive plan with broad-based support. Structural measures ranged from excavated reservoir and dike and channel improvements to modifications of existing structures.