Urban water supply and the changes in the precipitation patterns in the metropolitan area of São Paulo – Brazil

Abstract

The Metropolitan Area of Sao Paulo presents today one of the most critical situations in Brazil with regard to ensuring sufficient water supply in quantity and quality to its population. Declining water resources coupled with increased demand for clean water has already become a political issue in many localities. This study aimed to examine whether climate changes (especially in rainfall) resulting from the urbanization process are related to the urban water supply problems detected in the MASP, or whether they are due to poor management and the rapid growth of cities. Broadly, what can be concluded from the results of this research is that they indicate that there are signs of urbanization effects on the behavior of rainfall in the MASP. It was also identified that the averages of the volumes stored in the reservoirs that supply the MASP did not have a default behavior, even in similar weather conditions, suggesting the need for improvements in the systems.

Meta-analysis of urbanization impact on rainfall modification

“…This is because, the same urban area can yield different rainfall effects due to dynamical environmental factors related to aerosol emissions, surface and boundary layer feedbacks, mesoscale convergence, and thermodynamic considerations. An objective assessment is however, increasingly important as cities continue being vulnerable to rainfall extremes witnessing both floods 15 and droughts 16–18 , and an emerging topic of interest is how precipitation changes are affected by the urban environment 19,20 .…”

Water Supply Basins of São Paulo Metropolitan Region: Hydro-Climatic Characteristics of the 2013–2015 Water Crisis

“…Finally, studies have called on the importance of socio-political drivers in the water crisis. Supplying water in sufficient quantity and quality has become a political issue in many localities of SPMR [29] that aggravated during the crisis [8,10,30]. During the water crisis, the water and sanitation management company of São Paulo State (SABESP-Saneamento Básico do Estado de Sao Paulo) set two main measures (Jerson Kelman, director of SABESP, personal communication, 8 August 2016).…”

Water Quality and Pollution Index in Grenjeng River, Boyolali Regency, Indonesia

“…The quantity and quality of surface water and groundwater can be degraded due to several factors such as increasing population, industrialization activities, urbanization, etc (Jha et al, 2005;Flem et al, 2018). Water quality is very important for determining pollution sources for landuses (Sun et al, 2016;Lima et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2019). Anthropogenic waste pollution can reduce water quality which is also a very important problem to be resolved immediately (Blettler et al, 2018).…”

“…At present 420 billion m 3 of wastewater is discharged into rivers and lakes and there is 550 billion m 3 of polluted fresh water every year worldwide (Ma et al, 2009;. The supply of clean water in accordance with quality standards plays an important role in the sustainable agricultural sector (Lima et al, 2018;Vakilifard et al, 2019).…”