Qualidade ambiental de nascentes situadas fora de áreas protegidas em Belo Horizonte - MG: fatores condicionantes e desafios de proteção

Abstract

In Brazil, most cities still lack organized and strategic processes of urban planning. The construction project of Belo Horizonte, although planned, was inserted in this context by prioritizing a functional model aligned with the urban aesthetic standards of the time, with emphasis on mobility and regular geometric cuts, to the detriment of the territory’s physical and environmental conditions. This situation contributed, over time, to the increase in problems in the municipality associated with the water system, such as floods and inundations. In addition, urbanization significantly affected the springs present in the municipality, resulting in the suppression, alteration, and degradation of springs, as well as the emergence of new ones under conditions distinct from those originally found. In this scenario, protected areas such as Conservation Units and urban parks were established with the aim of conserving and recovering part of the city’s water system. Nevertheless, the local hydrography continued to be deeply modified, and many springs located outside these protected areas remain vulnerable. Although the importance of springs outside protected areas is recognized, studies focused on these environmental systems are still scarce. Moreover, the protection of these springs remains limited, relying mainly on collective or individual actions by the population. The present study aimed to investigate the factors that influence the environmental and water quality of springs located outside Conservation Units and urban parks in the municipality of Belo Horizonte. The research was developed based on the collection of primary data from a population of springs outside protected areas, allowing the characterization of their environmental and hydrological conditions, as well as pressures, impacts, and types of use by the population. The definition of the spring population included field recognition campaigns to certify the feasibility of working with the sample set previously specified in the office. Furthermore, it was decided to move from an ideal field recognition to an operational one due to the accelerated changes in land use and the increasing urban densification in the city, which caused the suppression or severe degradation of many springs previously recorded. In this sense, based on the operational field recognition, it was possible to define a sample set composed of 27 springs. The results indicated statistically significant correlations between socioterritorial variables, such as location and type of use, and the Spring Environmental Quality Index. On the other hand, these same variables showed low correlation with the Water Quality Index. In addition, environmental variables, which portray the characteristic and physical context of the springs, showed little influence on the indices ana lyzed. Thus, the analysis highlights that the use of a single indicator is not sufficient to address the complexity inherent to springs, especially those unprotected in urban contexts. Therefore, the need for broader and more systematic investigations is reinforced, particularly focusing on springs located outside legally protected areas, in order to support the development of more effective regulatory instruments compatible with the socio-environmental and hydrological specificities of the territory.