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Documento originalmente apresentado em International workshop “Uranium, Environment and Public Health”, UrEnv 2013.

Este artigo deriva de uma comunicação apresentada em International workshop “Uranium, Environment and Public Health”, UrEnv 2013.

Comunicação da qual só está disponível o resumo.

Surface water is exposed to contaminants which change the natural hydrological parameters and consequent contaminant dispersion. Water self-depuration is an ecological process aiming to restore the natural watercourse balance, which depends on the quality and quantity of topical and diffuse contributions. The main goal of this research is the evaluation of surface water quality in the Águeda River (Portugal-Spain transboundary watershed) and its self-depuration ability considering different predicted scenarios. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), dissolved oxygen (DO), dry residue, Ptotal, Ntotal, pH, temperature and microbiological parameters were analyzed, in thirty-six surface water samples. Simulation of different quality scenarios was undertaken using Qual2Kw software and the river's self-depuration ability discussed. The obtained model's calibration achieved a score of 95% confidence interval, for almost analyzed parameters. The calibrated model was used for two prediction scenario construction. The first one, intending to assess the influence of topical contaminated discharge and the second one, aiming to evaluate the influence of minimum flow rates, representing an extremely dry year. The two considered scenarios revealed that self-depuration capacity is more affected by the presence of minimum flow rates than topical discharges, attesting a large potential for self-depuration along the Águeda River.

Teledetección e fotointerpretación para el estudio de la evolución de la cuenca del rio Águeda.

Cohesión cartográfica en proyectos transfronterizos. El proyecto Agueda.

Este artigo deriva de uma comunicação apresentada em International workshop “Uranium, Environment and Public Health”

Só está disponível o resumo.

Ischnura graellsii (Insecta: Odonata) a water pollution biovulnerability indicator-probability mapping using spatial uncertainty.

The management of water resources is a priority for development of the places and welfare of people that supply, especially in water bodies most affected by anthropic pressures. Moreover, the increasing of sudden and extreme climatic phenomena appearance urges to resource planning in specific situations. In this research, the evolution of the piezometric surface has been simulated as the basis of a flow model draft, in the karstic aquifer of Cuellar Moor, located in the Douro watershed, all along the hydrologic years between 2010 and 2012. The use of geostatistical tools has been the starting point for estimating the piezometric surfaces, based on the median values. From the point of view of planning two scenarios showing extreme situations have been simulated: one of them synthesizes the most favorable conditions, in which piezometric level is at the recorded highest median levels (wet scenario); and the other one synthesizes the toughest conditions with the lowest recorded median piezometric levels (dry scenario). It likewise shows the estimated nitrate concentrations surface.

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Monitoring changes of anthropogenic impacts from a broad scope of species in biodiversity research require practical, easy-to-use and efficient assessment as well as monitoring methods. Odonates (Insecta: Odonata) are a valuable tool for assessing freshwater systems’ quality and have been used as bioindicators of environmental variety. The Águeda watershed, located in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula, shows an exponential increase in the last 60 years of natural resource exploitation coupled with alterations in consumer habits, causing significant environmental changes and deferred direct effects on the natural habitats. Fourteen river sites, selected a priori, were sampled. Adult odonates were collected using standardized methods. Selected environmental variables and water quality parameters were evaluated in situ. Precipitation and altitude were the most important physical, environmental variables in explaining the assemblage structure. Meaningful abiotic–biotic as well as biotic–biotic relationships were set up. Furthermore, situations in the urbanized watershed area showed to be highly impacted and closely related with damselfly Ischnura graellsii, which should be targeted as a possible vulnerability indicator for polluted fresh waters. A probability map for Ischnura graellsii distribution was performed using indicator kriging with external drift and spatial uncertainty obtain through the calculation of two categorical maps (binary), corresponding to the mean (0.485) and the trimmed mean by discharging the 10% lower distribution tail (0.533). The subsequent overlapping of both categorical maps (binary) allowed the definition of the higher spatial uncertainty map for surface water contamination.