Sistema de indicadores para gestão de recursos hídricos em municípios: uma abordagem através dos métodos multicritério e multidecisor.

Abstract

Water resources problems in semiarid regions are a crucial issue to overcome obstacles in their development. The problems in water management and the consequences of economic development have caused a number of problems related to humans´ anthropic actions and lack of public policies concerning the reality of each geographic context. This study investigates the way of developing a methodology based on a multi-criteria decision analysis with systemically structured indicators of water resources management capable of estimating the municipalities´ performance. The methodology adopted in the study considered the nature (research applied), objectives (exploratory and descriptive), procedures (bibliography and data), approach of the problem (quantitative based on the multi- criteria method PROMETHEE II and multi multi-decision method of COPELAND), and study location (region of the medium course of the Paraiba River, in the state of Paraíba). The model was developed in 8 parts and comprised of 40 indicators applied in 6 dimensions. The results showed that the use of both PROMETHEE model and COPELAND method to define the estimate rate or condition level of water resources management in the municipalities brought relevant points to that context. The arrangement obtained through the method pointed out differences among the municipalities in the region. It was also noted that this scenario is not the ideal in terms of water resources management even in the municipalities with satisfactory levels. The reflections, criticisms, and information provided in this work aim to broadly discuss the public policies in the field of hydric resources management in order to substantiate the most satisfactory results in this reality either understanding and stimulating the public participation in the building of such social policies or technically improving the managing organs.