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Soc. Bras. de Arborização Urbana REVSBAU, Piracicaba – SP, v.7, n.2, p.1-8, 2012
CASE STUDY ON THE MINDU ECOLOGICAL URBAN CORRIDOR: MAPPING ENVIRONMENTAL
LIABILITIES OF THE MINDU MUNICIPAL PARK, MANAUS-AM.
ABSTRACT
In the first operational and administrative incursions in the Mindu Municipal Park, we observed that many data were collected and filed loosely without treatment or a multi-criteria analysis. Due to the amount of loose data, a procedure to input them into only system was established, choosing one that could generate and make available geographic information on the area. Therefore, we used open-GIS, the SPRING, for possessing a wide range of reception for the data treatment to obtain necessary information on the protected area at cost zero. The present work aimed, in a simple and inexpensive way, to optimize the human resources and material to obtain a necessary mapping of environmental liabilities that affected the municipal park of the Mindu. The objective is to use the results to direct the actions of management of this protected area, to concentrate the efforts on the most problematic issues to secure the existence of natural asset in this protected area for the generations to come.
Keywords: Geotechnologies, environmental liabilities, risk management
ESTUDO DE CASO DO CORREDOR ECOLÓGICO E URBANO DO MINDU: MAPEAMENTO DE PASSIVOS
AMBIENTAIS DO PARQUE MUNICIPAL DO MINDU, MANAUS-AM
Rogério Fonseca1; Lizit Alencar da Costa2; Julio César Rodriguez Tello2; Carlos Moisés Medeiros3
RESUMO
Nas primeiras incursões operacionais e mesmo administrativas no parque municipal do Mindu, percebeu-se que muitos dados eram coletados e arquivados dispersadamente sem que houvesse algum tratamento ou análise criteriosa sobre os mesmos. Com muitos dados dispersos estabeleceu-se um procedimento de lançamento dos mesmos em um sistema único, escolhendo um que desse a oportunidade de gerar e disponibilizar informações geográficas sobre a área, utilizando, portanto, um SIG livre, o SPRING, por possuir um amplo espectro de recepção para o tratamento dos dados para obtenção de informações precisas sobre a unidade de conservação, a custo zero. O presente trabalho objetivou de forma simples e barata, aperfeiçoar os recursos humanos e materiais, para obter um mapeamento preciso dos passivos ambientais que afetavam o parque municipal do Mindu, direcionando as ações das equipes que compõem a gestão desta unidade de conservação, para concentrar os esforços no que é de maior problemática no presente para garantir a perpetuidade do patrimônio natural existente nesta área protegida a longo prazo.
Palavras chave: Geotecnologias, danos ambientais, gestão de riscos.
1 Biólogo, Mestre. Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus-AM. [email protected]. 2 Engenheiro Florestal, Doutor. Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus-AM. [email protected], [email protected]. 3 Agrônomo, Doutor. Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias, Departamento de Ciências Florestais, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus-AM.
Soc. Bras. de Arborização Urbana REVSBAU, Piracicaba – SP, v.7, n.2, p.1-8, 2012
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INTRODUCTION
The spatial data generated daily in conservation units
(CU) processed in environments of geographic
information systems (GIS) shows that the understanding
of situations, previously regarded as natural, are totally
contrary to those imagined by managers of protected
areas.
Increasingly, management based on facts, with the use of
appropriate tools, such as the geographic database and
GIS, leads to the refinement of management actions in
protected areas (Araújo, 2007) The simple action of
mapping environmental liabilities, generated in CUs or in
their vicinity, raises the question that monitoring should
be a basic premise in any management system of
protected areas, because in the decision-making process,
it gives adequate support for the management team to
direct their actions properly, not based on empirical
experiences of the administrative “hunch”.
Currently, more and more administrators of public areas
in governmental bodies should place efforts on the use of
geotechnological tools (GPS, GIS, remote sensing, aerial
photography, etc) to have support in the decision-making
process. For example, the study conducted at the Bacanga
State Park, municipality of São Luis – Maranhão state –
Brazil –, shows that the collection of information
provided, in addition to contributing to cartographic map
of the CU, new data on the use of resources in the park
(PINHEIRO JUNIOR, 2006).
The study conducted by Greggio et al (2009), in the
municipality of Jaboticabal – São Paulo state – Brazil –,
mapped the forest fragments in the municipality to assess
them qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of space
and time.
Two other notable cases were performed in the
municipalities of Linhares – Espírito Santo state – and
Volta Redonda – Rio de Janeiro state (both in Brazil),
where the System of Geo-Environmental Analysis
(SAGA) from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro) and developed by Silva (2007) was used, which
allowed insights on the natural and anthropogenic
conditions of both sites.
However, the current scenario, in general, is that few
government offices hold the expertise and human
resources to use these tools, and those that have skilled
personnel use only one software program strictly
commercial, which eventually becomes restricted to
sectors of the same institution because it requires a
license to be used in other sectors.
One way to eliminate the restrictions imposed by licenses
is to use free software (OpenGIS) coupled to all the
geotechnological tools available, contributing to a
professional management directed to long-term
preservation of public and private protected areas. This
study demonstrates that it is possible to map
environmental liabilities in a CU that composes an urban
ecological corridor such as the Mindu Municipal Park, at
relatively low cost that can be replicated to other
protected areas.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The area study is the Municipal Park Mindu,
Conservation Unit of the Integral Protection Group,
situated in the neighborhood Dez de Novembro, Central
Southern Region of the municipality of Manaus,
Amazonas state – Brazil –, (Decree No. 9043/2007) as
highlighted in Figure 1.
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Soc. Bras. de Arborização Urbana REVSBAU, Piracicaba – SP, v.7, n.2, p.1-8, 2012 3
Figure 1. Study area in relation to the State of Amazonas, municipality of Manaus – Brazil –, and hydrographic basin the
Mindu River
The materials used for mapping the environmental
liabilities were: register of occurrences, notices of
environmental violations and on site verification through
approximately 680 incursions conducted and recorded by
the staff of the Mindu Park from December 2006 to
December 2007, in the surroundings and boundaries of
CU object of this study.
In order to record visually the liabilities generated, we
created a database of images using a digital camera and to
generate spatial information about the liabilities, we used
a Garminn Map76S GPS receiver, spreadsheet/notepads
with field data. To create the analogical maps, we used
the programs Track-maker, Scarta and Spring 4.2.
The data collected to map the environmental liabilities
demanded much attention, as they referred to many
classes of liabilities, as examples: fire, unauthorized
constructions, tree falls, forest invasion, oil discharge,
sewage discharge, noise from appliances, garbage
disposal, sweep burning, and illegal fruit collection,
among others. This is because the analysis of the
occurrence registers as well as notices of violation to the
activities hid detailed specification of the fact.
Among the various classes, we refined four categories of
liabilities: 1 – Invasion of forest limits by buildings,
defined as constructions used as housing/commercial
property/land with fenced boundaries that were
established within the limits of the CU and for one reason
or another was extended into the protected area; 2 –
Disposal of solid waste, liquid and gas, defined as any
and all effluent that may interfere in any way with the
integrity of natural resources inside the CU; 3 – works
inside and around the CU without authorization,
understood as un necessary residential buildings for
housing/commercial property/ fenced land, and 4 –
natural disasters, which are all effects generated by a
natural/human action that trigged a process that resulted
in damage to the CU or to the ecosystem nearby.
After defining the categories of liabilities, we performed
the collection of spatial data for spatial distribution
Rogério Fonseca et al..
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through the GPS receiver and to create a database of
images, we photographed the liabilities found using a
digital camera.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Invasion of the CU boundaries by buildings: we found
in the Mindu Park twenty-three built-up areas within the
limits of the region identified as CU. We observed
extremely complex situations such as a gas station within
the CU limits and other unusual situations such as
residences on the western edge of the CU.
All these residents have extended their land area into the
Mindu Park. Conversely, some residents claimed that the
ownership of these areas were given to them prior to the
establishment of the CU and those who extended their
land area into the park had authorizations granted by
local politicians, however nothing has been documented
to prove the existence of such authorizations.
Comparatively, the establishment of a CU in a rural area
is a heroic act to consolidate different viewpoints, often
antagonistic, which leads to huge technical successive
studies and public consultations that grant or not its
establishment.
Contrary to rural areas, many urban conservation areas
are created from the demand from residents and even
from researchers who use certain green areas within the
city limits for leisure, as it was the case of the creation of
the Mindu Park. Much appreciated by residents of the
neighborhood Parque Dez de Novembro, the area in
question was established as protected, but this concept is
not so much followed by the “next door” neighbors of the
Mindu Municipal Park.
When the protected area was established, a small number
of residents of the immediate surroundings were not
aware of the purpose of a protected area under the
category of park, i.e., the creation of the protected area
for some of those residents would not affect their
relationship with the continuous extraction of natural
resources area.
In mid-2005, environmental education programs were
established and conducted by the Municipal Secretariat
for Environment and local NGOs, in order to direct
actions aimed at conservation of local flagship species,
the Sauim-de-Coleira (Saguinus bicolor), which
indirectly contributed to the dissemination of the
importance of conservation in urban areas.
However, situations in a very recent past of successive
invasions in several regions of Manaus gave rise to a
general feeling of impunity causing some residents of the
immediate surroundings of protected areas of Manaus to
extend opportunistically their land area into the protected
areas already established.
Waste disposal: we identified in the field all points of
disposal of liquid, solid and gaseous effluents. We
highlight that we also found noise emission beyond
established limits within the limits of the CU.
The existence of 58 points of waste disposal in the
immediate surroundings of the Mindu Municipal Park
shows that anthropogenic actions cause a huge imbalance
to the ecosystems inserted in the CU.
One of the most interesting situations is a flower shop
installed in the west side of the park that uses the park as
a deposit of waste that, theoretically, “is taken away
weekly”. Commonly, some residents in the surrounding
of the park refurbish their households and have a nasty
habit of disposing construction debris into the area of the
Mindu Municipal Park, specifically residents from the
western side, who repeatedly dispose their waste
illegally, despite the guidance given weekly by park
administrators. This shows that more reprehensive
actions should be taken in these situations. In 2007,
actions led by park volunteers and the Department of
Public Sanitation decreased the amount of garbage
disposed inside the protected area, specifically in the
western and eastern sectors.
When a CU is established, we have in mind, theoretically,
that this area is a geographically delimited region free
from harmful actions, which is because humans are aware
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that the environment’s ability to bear the consequences
affecting activities is limited.
However, the urban fact, i.e., human concentration in
spaces known as “cities” brings many benefits, but,
conversely, another much higher number of drawbacks.
The agglomeration of people in spaces not designed for
human settlements, from centuries ago to present, has
caused numerous situations of risk to human life and
other living beings. The law establishing the National
Environmental Policy No. 6938/81 defines pollution, in
the subparagraphs of paragraph III of art. 3,
understanding that every situation mentioned by the law
encompasses waste disposal into the Mindu Municipal
Park.
Unauthorized constructions: in a survey conducted in
the Mindu Municipal Park, we identified 18 unauthorized
constructions. We highlight the southern sector where a
business store has two wells drilled within the
conservation area. Situations like these should be
combated, but the financial appeal that these institutions
bring to the city is relatively high, according to the local
judiciary; therefore, they continue their activities using
natural resources and common use for everyone.
Assuming that all constructions must be authorized by
any regulatory body, these agencies should officially
confer with the management of the protected area to
deliver assessment on the project or construction
informing about the potential of pollution, degradation or
use of natural resources within the limits of the protected
area. Even if the protected area has no management plan,
as is the case of the Park Mindu, this area is identified by
resolution of the National Council of Environment No.
13/90 until the establishment of a management plan,
which redefines the boundaries of this area into
something approaching the reality of the ecosystem
protected.
Natural disasters: spatially representation of natural
disasters of the Mindu Municipal Park has become an
extremely effective indicator to discern whether they
were actually caused disasters or natural catastrophes
generated by lack of planning. Initially it was thought that
all the effects generated by a natural action of the
ecosystem would trigger a process that would result in
damage to the CU, but the processing of the first spatial
data showed standards that were repeated over several
months, particularly those concerning the fall of trees.
Currently the Mindu Municipal Park has a system of 12
tracks, which were established for the educational
interpretation focused on nature conservation and others
for the monitoring of the protected area. Of the 12 tracks,
only two tracks (jungle and waterfall) have the design
appropriate for nature interpretation without damaging it,
but they are underused, due to their remoteness from the
administrative headquarters of the CU.
The other ten existing tracks were re-planned in 2006 by
a team of technicians of SEMMA (Municipal Secretariat
for the Environment) and the developing company J.
Nasser. These ten tracks were increased in size of passage
corridor from 1.25 m and 2.00 m, considered a balanced
corridor for the passage of people, FBPN (2006), to up to
4.00 m 8.00 m currently, a passage corridor extremely
wide that led to a serious conservation problem, known as
internal insularization4.
This increase in size of the tracks led established trees,
which previously had a natural corridor to woody area
connected by a canopy, to form open real “avenues”
inside the park, causing, in addition to the canopy
opening, the leaning of trees located along the tracks to
obtain light in the canopy gaps. The leaning of trees to
obtain light is typical at the edges of fragments and not in
the middle of the fragments, as observed in the protected
area. As a result, we note an “internal islanding” of the
large fragment of the Mindu Park in least three other
internal fragments, caused by the opening of excessively
wide tracks.
Another major problem that caused a huge loss of forest
species with arboreal size was the creation of three tracks
that did not follow the level curves. Lechner and
Caiut/CCCB (2004) propose as restrictions to the creation
of tracks: “fragile areas like marshes and fields,
inadequate due to soil, with steep slopes and likelihood of
flooding”. After the establishment of these situations
unsuitable for the creation of tracks, it was still
implemented a trace of trails that instead of following the
level curves, it cuts the level curves, thus exposing the
roots of trees of medium and large size, increasing
Rogério Fonseca et al..
Soc. Bras. de Arborização Urbana REVSBAU, Piracicaba – SP, v.7, n.2, p.1-8, 2012
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sediment removal and silting of the few existing drainage
systems on the tracks.
The cut of the level curves to open the tracks, will
certainly cause in the short-term the fall of all trees with
exposed roots. Proposed management procedures to
avoid further accidents would involve necessary
silvicultural treatments and even the removal of trees
with high tendency to fall.
The infrastructure that should, theoretically, contribute to
the public use of a protected area, mainly in the Mindu
Park, contributed to accelerate the degradation of the
area. An example was the installation of inappropriate
tracks to a region with high incidence of rainfall. The
installation of a drainage system (squared model 40cm x
40cm) did not help to reduce the speed of the water on
the tracks. In addition, the inclusion of concrete stairs in
podzolic soil, not suitable for runoff, led to an
acceleration of erosion on trails that had these types of
structures.
Totaling facts: to direct and concentrate efforts and
scarce financial resources, we decided to quantify
environmental liabilities and separate them into sectors of
the Mindu Park, so that mitigation measures can be taken
in the short-term and give a more Cartesian form to the
spatial data. Figures 2 and 3 show qualitatively and
quantitatively which indicator has the greatest incidence
on the CU and separates it into sectors based on spatial
information.
Proposals that contribute to the overall reduction of the
major indicator “waste disposal” in the park should
encompass actions for the watershed as the eastern,
northern and southern boundaries suffer direct influence
of hydric regime of the bayou of the Mindu Park.
Environmental education activities and mainly sanitary
contribute to the reduction of waste in these sectors.
However, the western boundary, the most critical, should
suffer large-scale intervention, residents (industries,
businesses and residences) in this sector dispose their
waste into the park area.
Figure 2. Indicators of environmental liabilities by sector in the Mindu Municipal Park
Figure 3. Spatial mapping of the environmental liabilities in the Mindu Municipal Park
Limit invasion Garbage disposal Unauthorized constructions Natural catastrophes
South limit
North limit
East limit
West limit
Environmental liabilities of the Mindu Municipal Park
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Regarding the indicator “natural disaster”, the situation
could stabilize after five years, if taken, in the short-term,
silvicultural treatments applicable to trees on the tracks,
and procedures of geological engineering in the
infrastructure of these tracks have erosion grooves and
drainage system extremely poorly dimensioned. With
regard to the indicators “unauthorized constructions” and
“invasion of boundaries”, situations like these should
never be permitted by the local executive government.
The legislative and judiciary powers, however, must
effectively contribute to the consolidation of Brazilian
environmental policy to ensure that the conservation unit
is perpetuated for future generations.
CONCLUSION
By mapping the “problems” in a CU of the urban area,
we are able to, in a short period, boost actions for
environmental protection. What we noticed before the
compilation of the occurrences of the park was a group of
people that worked to find occurrences in the CU, and not
a team that we aware of the problem that most affected
the general dynamics of the protected area. The mapping
of environmental liabilities redirected management
actions to the most critical situations of the CU and
allowed the management team to input autonomously
data for the analysis and solution of problems, which was
fully achieved by the Park Manager, creating conditions
to conduct the activities in a simple and inexpensive way,
improving human resources and materials.
After continual use of the mapping of environmental
liabilities, updated in real time, the tool proved to be
robust to assist in the decision-making process, especially
for the spatial distribution of the teams in CU, however, it
should be highlighted that that the data input to generate
this information was only possible to be executed in
personal desktop of the CU manager. This is due to the
simple fact that the use of free software depended on
acceptance by specific sector of the Municipality of
Mindu Park Natural catastrophes Limit invasion by constructions Unauthorized constructions Garbage disposal Minu Basin Track opening
Rogério Fonseca et al..
Soc. Bras. de Arborização Urbana REVSBAU, Piracicaba – SP, v.7, n.2, p.1-8, 2012
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Manaus, since it had consolidated the license to use
another software program exclusively commercial, which
is an extremely limiting aspect for the management
system of the protected area regarding free
geotechnological tools.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank CNPq – National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development – for the financial
support to conduct the scientific research.
REFERENCES
ARAÚJO, Marcos Antonio Reis. Unidades de Conservação no Brasil: da república à gestão de classe mundial. Belo Horizonte: DEGRAC, 2007. CCCB, Centro de Capacitação em Conservação da Biodiversidade. Curso de Planejamento e Manejo de Áreas Naturais Protegidas – Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza. Guaraqueçaba, 2004. FUNDAÇÃO O BOTICÁRIO DE PROTEÇÃO À NATUREZA (FBPN); Planejamento, implantação e manejo de trilhas em Unidades de Conservação – Larry Lechner. Cadernos de Conservação, ano 3, nº. 3, Curitiba, 2006. GREGGIO, Thiago Claudino; PISSARRA, Teresa Cristina Tarlé e RODRIGUES, Flávia Mazzer. Avaliação dos fragmentos florestais do município de Jaboticabal-SP. Rev. Árvore [online]. 2009, vol.33, n.1. MANAUS, Diário Oficial do Município de, 21 de maio de 2007, Decreto nº. 9043 de redelimitação e ampliação do Parque Municipal do Mindu, Manaus, Amazonas PINHEIRO JUNIOR, José de Ribamar, Uso de geotecnologias como subsídios à gestão do Parque Estadual do Bacanga, São Luis, Maranhão, Brasil, Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, 2006. SILVA, Jorge Xavier da. Geoprocessamento e Análise Ambiental: aplicações, Jorge Xavier da Silva, Ricardo Tavares Zaidan (Organizadores), Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 2007.