Federal University Rio de Janeiro Researchers Focus on Risk Management (Water Scarcity Risk Index: A Tool for Strategic Drought Risk Management): Risk Management

2023 FEB 02 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on risk management have been published. According to news reporting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Drought events have affected many regions of the world, having negative economic, environmental and social impacts. When accompanied by increasing water demands, these events can lead to water scarcity.”

Financial supporters for this research include Coordenacao De Aperfeicoamento De Pessoal De Nivel Superior; National Council For Scientific And Technological Development.

The news editors obtained a quote from the research from Federal University Rio de Janeiro: “Since droughts can significantly vary in each geographic area, several indices have been developed around the world. Hazard indexes are commonly used to predict meteorological, agricultural and hydrological droughts. These indexes intend to predict hazards, but they do not provide information on when and where deficits can have negative consequences. This study presents a new planning and decision-support tool for monitoring water scarcity situations in a given region. This tool, called the Water Scarcity Risk Index (* * W-ScaRI* * ), is formed by two subindices, which are proposed to describe a hazard and its consequences. Each subindex was constructed using a group of indicators and indices selected from the technical literature or originally proposed in this work. The * * W-ScaRI* * was applied to the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RJMR), supplied with water by the Guandu/Lajes/Acari system. The RJMR is one of the most densely populated regions in Brazil, located in an area that has no natural water bodies capable of meeting its supply needs. Therefore, the Guandu River, which, in fact, is formed by two discharge transpositions from the Paraiba do Sul River, is the main drinking water supply source for this region.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The RJMR suffered the consequences of unexpected, prolonged droughts in the Southeast region in 2003 and 2014-2015, leading the local authorities to implement temporary emergency measures in the management system of Paraiba do Sul and Guandu Basins, avoiding water shortage but showing the urgent need for planning and management support tools to anticipate possible future problems. The results of the study show that the formulation of the * * W-ScaRI* * can represent the water scarcity risk in a relatively simple way and, at the same time, with adequate conceptual and methodological consistency.”

For more information on this research see: Water Scarcity Risk Index: A Tool for Strategic Drought Risk Management. Water, 2023,15(255):255. (Water - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/). The publisher for Water is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/w15020255.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Fernanda Rocha Thomaz, Programa de Engenharia Civil-PEC, COPPE, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941-450, Brazil. Additional authors for this research include Marcelo Gomes Miguez, Gabriel Windsor de Moura Alberto, Joao Pedro Moreira Fontes.

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