Assessment of Water Availability and Environmental Influence on People’s Lives in a Small Basin in the Hinterland of Pernambuco, Using the SUPer and UAV

Abstract

Water scarcity is a worldwide concern considering that water is a limited resource and essential for life. In Brazil, approximately 30% of its population lives in a semi-arid region covering about 20% of the country’s territorial extension, which is one of the areas that most suffers from a lack of water. The lack of water, mainly in the northeast of the country, has been a problem for years, as people who live in this territory suffer for months from the poor distribution of this resource, which increases the degree of inequality between the regions of the country. The research aims to show the effect of the hydrological cycle on the quality of vegetation and how such processing can end up affecting people’s lives and the environment. This study carried out a temporal analysis from 1961 to 2021. The hydrological model system used to assess water availability was the Pernambuco Hydrological Response Units SUPer-System. UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) was used to view the relationship between living and environmental conditions. The results showed a difference between the water balance today and in the future due to climate change. Thus, it is concluded that climate change will have different impacts at a small scale as well as on people’s living conditions as a result of different characteristics of the environment. It is very important to carry out studies on a detailed scale to provide better public policies for mitigating the effects of climate change on people’s lives.