Water resources, water crisis and history of rivers in the context of global environmental change

Abstract

The development of two research projects "Mental health, urban violence and global environmental change in the Export Corridor Tamoios D. Pedro I, São Paulo, Brazil (FAPESP, process n. 2013/17173-5)" and "The decision-making in rural properties: climate changes, risk and environmental conservation as drivers" (FAPESP, process n. 2013/19678-7), have provided the identification of some emerging problems, related to the new regional dynamics that have to be faced by municipalities along the Exporter Axis D. Pedro I - Tamoios. The results indicate an increasing urbanization and strong anthropic pressure on water resources due to high population and industrial pressure in the region (figure 01 and 02), and changes in land use caused by agricultural activities leading to environmental degradation, alteration of the landscape and loss of ecosystem functions. This occurs because the new regional dynamics, like land-use and land-cover change are affected by a complex interaction between natural and social systems at different temporal and spatial scales. At the same time the State of São Paulo, and particularly the study area, has been faced with another major problem, which is the shortage of water resources due to severe drought that the state faces in recent years, coupled with the lack of effectiveness in water resources management (Coutinho et al, 2015; Vasconcelos, 2015; Leite, 2015).These aspects highlighted associated with the group's objective to continue collaboration with British colleagues, aroused the interest in developing joint activities of research and intervention with local communities in order to rescue their identities and stories associated with the rivers located in our study area, approaching strongly the project developed by Dr. Barrett in Cardiff. (AU)