Environmental conservation index of urban streams of Cavouco and Parnamirim streams, Brazil

Abstract

Historically, urban watercourses have been rectified and channeled, directly impacting their hydrological dynamics and the water cycle. Currently, the recovery of environmental and social services of urban rivers and streams has been a worldwide trend in an attempt to make cities more sustainable. This study applied the Environmental Conservation Index of Urban Streams (ECIUS), developed by Cometti et al. (2022), to two streams in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The ECIUS is made up of nine indicators, based on the pressure-state-response model and calculated using a system based on fuzzy rules. The Cavouco stream presented the “regular” ECIUS in stretch 1 and “bad” in stretches 2, 3, 4, and 5. As for the Parnamirim stream, sections 1 and 2 presented ECIUS as “bad” and section 3 as “terrible.” ECIUS proved to be an easy-to-apply tool for modeling and translating complex environmental and social variables into easy-to-understand linguistic variables. The tool can be used for diagnosis and to serve as a decision support for urban stream revitalization and monitoring interventions.