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Water scarcity in Brazil: part 1—regionalization of the AWARE model characterization factors

  • IMPLICATIONS OF LCA CHOICES ON INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS AND ON DECISION SUPPORT
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Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents the regionalized water scarcity characterization factors (CFs) of the available water remaining (AWARE) model, which was found by a previous study, on the water scarcity in Brazil, to be the most indicative characterization model for the water-scarce regions in Brazil. We used the national database and hydrographic delimitations defined by the National Water Agency (Agência Nacional de Águas — ANA) to generate the regionalized AWARE BR CFs.

Methods

The CFs were regionalized by hydrographic delimitations used by ANA: (i) State Hydrographic Units (SHU) and (ii) Hydrographic Regions (HR). These AWARE BR CFs were compared with the factors originally proposed by WULCA (2018) and with the Scarcity Index used by ANA to identify the scarcest regions in the country. Finally, the AWARE and AWARE BR factors were applied to a case study of Brazilian melons, evaluating the regionalization effects on the results of water scarcity analysis.

Results and discussion

The AWARE BR CFs demonstrate most consistency with the regions recognized by ANA to have water scarcity problems, such as the semiarid region. Approximately 12% of the SHUs exhibited maximum water scarcity (CF = 100) during the entire year, while 11% presented minimum scarcity factors (CF = 0.1). The comparison of hydrologic data from ANA with those from WaterGAP indicated that water availability was overestimated in WaterGAP, while demand was underestimated in different basins. The comparison of AWARE BR CFs with ANA Scarcity Index values indicated more similarity (smaller residual error) than the comparison of AWARE BR CFs with AWARE. The case study regarding the impact of water scarcity on melons showed a significant difference between characterization factors and, consequently, in the values of impact.

Conclusions

AWARE BR factors generated with national characterization data are adapted to the different regions of Brazil, exhibiting higher sensitivity to the semiarid region. This regionalization provided a more accurate representation of the scarcity in smaller basins located in larger basins, characterized by large climate variation.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Water Agency (Agência Nacional de Águas — ANA) for providing hydro-geographic data, and the National Council for the Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq) for the financial support. We also wish to extend our thanks to the Brazilian Life-Cycle Impact Assessment Research Network (Rede Brasileira de Pesquisa em Impacto da Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida — RAICV) for the scientific support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rovira i Virgili University, l`Escorxador Street, 43003, Tarragona, Spain

    Edilene Pereira Andrade

  2. Federal University of Ceará, Humberto Monte Avenue - Pici, Fortaleza, CE, 60440-593, Brazil

    Ana Bárbara de Araújo Nunes, Kilvia de Freitas Alves, Mateus da Costa Alencar & Tayane de Lima Santos

  3. Federal Technology University of Paraná (UTFPR), Sete de Setembro Avenue, 3165 - Rebouças, Curitiba, 80230-901, Brazil

    Cássia Maria Lie Ugaya

  4. State University of Ceará, Dr. Silas Munguba Avenue, 1700 - Campus do Itaperi, Fortaleza, Ceará, 60741-000, Brazil

    Viviane da Silva Barros

  5. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Modelling (CCIAM), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Amandine Valérie Pastor

  6. Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical, Dra. Sara Mesquista Street, 2270 - Pici, Fortaleza, 60020, Brazil

    Maria Cléa Brito de Figueirêdo

Authors
  1. Edilene Pereira Andrade
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  2. Ana Bárbara de Araújo Nunes
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  3. Kilvia de Freitas Alves
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  4. Cássia Maria Lie Ugaya
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  7. Viviane da Silva Barros
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  8. Amandine Valérie Pastor
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  9. Maria Cléa Brito de Figueirêdo
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Correspondence to Edilene Pereira Andrade.

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Andrade, E.P., de Araújo Nunes, A.B., de Freitas Alves, K. et al. Water scarcity in Brazil: part 1—regionalization of the AWARE model characterization factors. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25, 2342–2358 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01643-5

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