Rooftop water harvesting for managed aquifer recharge and flood mitigation in tropical cities: Towards a strategy of co-benefit evaluations in João Pessoa, northeast Brazil.

Intense urbanisation in many coastal areas has led to intensification of groundwater consumption, while reducing permeable areas and increasing the frequency and magnitude of flooding. Among the potential strategies to compensate for these adverse effects, which are expected to become worse as a result of climate change, rooftop rainwater harvesting (RWH) in combination with managed aquifer recharge (MAR), may be indicated. This work investigated the performance of different configurations of such a system, tested as a twofold sustainable stormwater and domestic water management tool in a tropical metropole (João Pessoa, Brazil). This area located over a sedimentary aquifer system illustrates the water security challenges of densely urbanised areas in southern cities. To that end, several configurations of rooftop catchments and storage volumes were evaluated, by simulating a MAR-RWH system connected to the regional unconfined aquifer (Barreiras Formation) through a 6″ diameter injection well. Rainfall-runoff-recharge processes and water balances were simulated using monitored high-temporal resolution rainfall data. The results showed that catchments ranging from 180 to 810 m2, connected to tanks from 0.5 to 30.0 m³, are the optimal solutions in terms of efficient rainwater retention and peak flow reduction. These solutions provided mean annual estimates of aquifer recharge between 57 and 255 m³/yr from 2004 to 2019. The results of this study highlight the opportunity for MAR schemes to reconcile stormwater management and water supply goals.

Delineating groundwater contamination risks in southern coastal metropoles through implementation of geochemical and socio-environmental data in decision-tree and geographical information system.

Due to global warming and local anthropogenic pressures, sustainable groundwater resource exploitation in coastal cities is increasingly threatened. For example, the fifth largest Brazilian city, Recife, is considered as a representative hot spot for these issues and illustrates the great challenges facing many urban areas in the southern hemisphere. There, recharge as well as surface water and groundwater quality are altered by frequent droughts and poorly planned environmental management since decades. To maintain access to water, thousands of private wells were dug in order to pump water from the multi-layered aquifer system found under the city. This massive exploitation is causing a chronic lowering of the water levels, as well as seawater intrusion and contaminations by wastewater or polluted surface waters. Through hydrochemical characterization, mainly Cl/Br ratio and Cl concentrations, of wells sampled throughout the metropole, this study first characterizes the main environmental impacts on the resource, i.e. waste waters and seawater. Combining this evaluation with lithological, land-use and socio-environmental data, it was then possible to build decision trees identifying combinations of multiple factors possibly having an impact on contamination types. The well and population densities, the waste and sewage management, as well as the absence of sanitary facilities in houses appeared as critical parameters to target in order to reduce the risk of contamination of the water resource and ensure its preservation. Based on these factors, we created a risk map for contamination types that should help in identifying areas where groundwater resource may present an environmental (and then health) issue for people. Besides, this study shows that the combination of hydrochemical, geomorphological and socio-environmental characterizations of these urban systems featuring very contrasted situations between neighborhoods is a relevant tool to propose further groundwater management strategies.

Spatial multicriteria approach to support water resources management with multiple sources in semi-arid areas in Brazil.

Semi-arid regions often face severe drought events that reduce agricultural and livestock production. In recent years, some international studies have used multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) approaches combined with geographic information systems (GIS-MCDA) to support decision-makers in assessing the suitability of agricultural land for irrigation in semi-arid regions. Unlike previous studies, which have only considered a single source of water for crop irrigation, this study proposes a GIS-MCDA approach that considers all potentially available local water sources (e.g., groundwater, surface water, and wastewater) as possible alternatives for better multisource water resource management (MWRM) in regions facing water shortages. The geospatial multicriteria evaluation implemented in this study considers a series of technical, environmental, and agricultural productivity criteria using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Three independent baseline maps were generated, showing the spatial distribution of suitable areas for crop irrigation for each considered water source in the studied area. Surface water, groundwater, and wastewater offered suitable crop irrigation for 83%, 70%, and 26% of the study area, respectively. Overlapping these areas produced a final map showing all the feasible areas for each crop irrigation alternative at the same time. The MWRM approach considering all water sources increased the coverage of suitable areas to be irrigated in the study area by 2.2%, 20.4%, and more than 225% compared to considering surface water, groundwater, and wastewater, respectively, independently. The GIS-MCDA framework proposed in this study provides better support for decision-makers and stakeholders, favouring a reduction in possible conflicts over water scarcity, the diversification of irrigated crops, and an improvement in the quality-quantitative management of water resources in semi-arid regions.

Piezometric level and electrical conductivity spatiotemporal monitoring as an instrument to design further managed aquifer recharge strategies in a complex estuarial system under anthropogenic pressure.

Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR, NE Brazil) lies over a multi-layered aquifer system located in an estuarial area. The region has experienced fast population growth and repeated droughts in the last three decades, which led to unprecedented anthropogenic pressure on groundwater resources because of intense water pumping. Accordingly, scientific and stakeholder communities have been challenged to ensure the maintenance of sustainable groundwater resource by managing all water cycle. Because controlling pumping rates is difficult due to the large number of illegal wells, the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) strategies are now under consideration. The RMR presents a tropical climate and an annual average rainfall rate of approximately 2450 mm year-1, providing great potential volumes of water to be used for piezometric level recovery. However, MAR implementation requires a detailed and in-depth knowledge of the human-impact on the hydrogeological behavior of the resource over the long-term, in order to find out the most appropriate recharge strategy. Therefore, the present study illustrates how routine data monitoring, i.e., piezometric level and electrical conductivity (EC), in combination with the geological knowledge, may allow proposing further MAR strategies. Two contrasted behaviors were observed in RMR: (i) groundwater level decrease and stable EC in the North and Southernmost areas of Recife; and (ii) stable groundwater level and high/varying EC values next to the estuarial zone. Although aquifers are undergoing over-abstraction, this spatiotemporal heterogeneity suggests that a recharge is possibly locally favored next to the estuarial area of the RMR thanks to hydraulic connections between surface and deep aquifers throughout extended paleo-channels. Thus, based on this typology, MAR implementation through controlled infiltration close to the estuarial area seems to be more appropriated, whereas the direct deep injection appears to be more relevant in more distant zones.

Ações de promoção e prevenção à saúde do trabalhador sob risco de exposição e transmissão de hepatites virais / Health Promotion and prevention for workers at risk of viral hepatitis exposure and transmission

Este trabalho teve como objetivo relatar uma experiência vivenciada, a partir de uma ação de extensão universitária com trabalhadores da atenção primária e manicures sob o risco de exposição e transmissão de hepatites virais. Percebeu-se a necessidade de sensibilizá-los e conscientizá-los sobre os riscos ocupacionais aos quais estão expostos, pela não utilização dos equipamentos de proteção individual, bem como a falta de cuidados gerais e locais a serem tomados, após a exposição a material biológico, o que tem gerado riscos eminentes à saúde desses profissionais e de sua clientela. Para elaboração do projeto de intervenção: "Mãos de fada, saúde de ferro" foram considerados os perfis produtivos da população adscrita na área de abrangência de uma USF e a atividade foi desenvolvida tendo em vista os seguintes momentos: acolhimento dos trabalhadores e abertura do evento; mesa redonda sobre as hepatites virais B e C e as principais normas de biossegurança; ergonomia e ginástica laboral aplicada às profissões representadas; realização de testagem sorológica para doenças infecciosas; atualização vacinal, quando necessária; além da avaliação nutricional e odontológica. As ações de prevenção e promoção desenvolvidas alcançaram os diferentes grupos ocupacionais, expostos ao mesmo risco de adoecer enquanto na atividade laboral.

This work aims to report on an experience from a university extension action with primary care workers and manicurists at risk of viral hepatitis exposure and transmission. There is a clear need to raise their awareness and concern about the occupational hazards to which they are exposed from the failure to use personal protective equipment, and the lack of general and specific care to be taken after exposure to biological materials, which has been generating imminent health risks for these professionals and their clientele. To design the intervention project: "Fairy hands, iron health", the production profiles of the registered population in the coverage area of a Family Health Unit were considered, and the activity was developed based on the segments: reception of the workers and opening of the event; roundtable on viral hepatitis B and C, and the main standards of biosecurity; ergonomics and physical activities applied to the professions represented; conducting serological testing for infectious diseases; vaccination updates, when necessary, as well as nutritional and dental evaluation. The prevention and promotion activities developed here pertained to the different occupational groups exposed to the same risk of becoming ill while going about their work activities.