Social participation in water resource management: Reality of the Center Hydrographic Region Council (Portugal) and the Apodi-Mossoró River Basin Committee (Brazil)

Authors

Jorge Luís de Oliveira Pinto Filho Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, Pau dos Ferros. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2730-6929
Lúcio Cunha Universidade de Coimbra (UC), Departamento de Geografia e Turismo, Coimbra. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0086-7862

Environmental Public Policies, Water Governance, Participatory Management, Environmental Justice

Research Purpose: Water is a natural resource essential to human development, with multiple uses, which generates

pollution processes, with environmental, economic, and social consequences. This work aims to evaluate the social

participation in the management of water resources in Portugal and Brazil.

Methodology: For this, we adopted the methodological procedures of systematic literature review, investigation of the

documentation on the Council of the Hydrographic Region (CRH) of Center/Portugal and the Hydrographic Basin

Committee (CBH) of the Apodi/Mossoró River in Brazil and obtaining field data with the application of interviews to the

members of these two institutions.

Findings: It was found that the participation of the members of CRH Center/Portugal and the CBH of the Apodi/Mossoró

River in Brazil refers to the similarities in the degree of participation, diversity of the segment, number of members,

participation of civil society, and participation of the private sector; however, they are distinct concerning the degree of

interest, ways of choosing the members, their level of knowledge, the interaction between the members and the

participation of the public authorities.

Originality/Value: Therefore, it is recommended for the evolution of these management models a deeper knowledge of

their representatives, through the diagnosis of the socioeconomic profile, as well as their environmental perception.

Download data is not yet available.