Knowledge transfer course aiming at groundwater management within the scope of the São Paulo State Basin Committees

Abstract

There is a broad legal framework in public water resources policies, whose implementation, however, still requires greater efficiency in important aspects, despite the advances made in the policies as a whole. Excessive extraction and contamination of aquifers, are becoming increasingly common problems. The diagnoses indicate that one of the main causes for the deficiency in the concertation of management instruments is related to the lack of adequate training by the actors involved in this management. In this sense, this project proposes a groundwater training course applied to management, directed to actors representing municipal and state agencies, as well as organized civil society, who act on the Sorocaba and Middle Tietê Watershed Committee (CBH-SMT) . The course aims to transfer knowledge so that water resources management tools (eg Basin Plans and Situation Reports) address the issue of groundwater in an appropriate and strategic manner for its sustainable use and quality protection, thus ensuring the water security of the population. In addition to student training and teacher training (scholarship holders), the following results should be obtained: systematization of existing hydrogeological knowledge for the Tietê / Sorocaba Water Resources Management Unit (UGRHI 10); production of guidance documents for the best use of management tools; publication of articles relating to methods, teaching materials, and advances made during the project itself. Some central characteristics of the course are: the content transfer starts, initially, from the perception of the actors involved with the theme, and uses workshops focused on real problems of the CBH-SMT region; in order to solve these problems, the available knowledge and data, systematized during the project, will be used; the long duration (two years) of the course and the periodic evaluations of the effectiveness of knowledge transfer will allow to adapt methods and materials to provide a better assimilation of the contents. The experience gained with the application of the course at CBH-SMT and the development of the results cited will be important references for replication in other watersheds of the state. (AU)