Importance of river basin monitoring and hydrological data availability for the integrated management of water resources

Abstract

Environmental conservation is essential for environmental and social maintenance, along with practices aimed at sustainable development that can address the integrated administration of natural resources. Therefore, this work aims to evaluate the possibility of implementing the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) program, based on hydrological data made available at the National Water Resources Information System (NWRIS) under the responsibility of the Brazilian National Water Agency (Agência Nacional de Águas). As such, this study presents the conditions for hydrometric monitoring of the Sinos River watershed, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and discusses the importance of making hydrological data available to the IWRM. Based on information made available in the NWRIS, a survey was carried out on the historical series of pluviometric, fluviometric and water quality stations installed in the basin to verify whether, based on the hydrometric monitoring carried out, it is possible to implement the IWRM. Based on the existing data, it was observed that the implementation and maintenance of the IWRM system is compromised. It appears that there are several entities that monitor water resources in the basin, however, when made available, the data observed by such entities are stored in each institution’s specific websites or are not made available at all, which makes it difficult for users to acquire the data. In addition, there is a need to expand and implement an automatic and telemetric monitoring network in the basin.

Keywords:
Sinos River basin; Hydrometric stations; River basin committees