Simulações da implantação de ações de gestão no açude Epitácio Pessoa e seus impactos na crise hídrica em Campina Grande-PB e região.

Abstract

Reservoirs located in semi-arid regions present high hydrological variability, low regularization flows, compared to others in more humid climates, and are subject to large evaporation losses, mainly in their periods of high water levels, making their effective management extremely important. This article aims to show how mathematical models can be used as a tool to support decision-making process in the operation of reservoirs and how management measures can affect rationing and water crises. The case study of this research is the Epitacio Pessoa Reservoir (also called Boqueirão), located in the city of Campina Grande-PB, Brazilian semiarid region. The Boqueirão went through the biggest water crisis since its construction, a non-optimized management of these resources can be pointed as one of the causes of these water crisis aggravation. It is proposed a methodology that consists in the definition of eight scenarios, composed by actions or set of actions that could have been taken regarding to the water management of this reservoir during that period. Among the set of actions proposed, there are managing actions and others involving the use of techniques to reduce evaporation losses. The scenarios were simulated with the mathematical model AcquaNet, for a period of 63 months, in order to analyze which action would have been the most beneficial for the population, and how each set of actions could have, quantitatively, affected the water shortage issue in Campina Grande and region. Sustainability indexes (reliability, resilience and vulnerability), reservoir final volumes and average meeting of the water demand requirements, were used to analyze and compare the scenarios. From these results, comparisons were made among the scenarios to identify the measures that would have caused the greatest impact on the system. The results pointed out that measures which included the use of evaporation rates reduction techniques in the reservoir’s hydraulic basin could have completely avoided the adoption of severe rationing to which the population was submitted for a long time. In addition, it is demonstrated that mathematical simulation models can be useful in decision-making processes regarding the management of reservoirs in a water scarcity situation, especially in arid or semi-arid climate regions.