Prospecção das Interdependências entre Água, Energia e Alimento no Brasil

Abstract

The water resources management in Brazil consists an enormous challenge before domestic and global demands for food, energy matrix renewal and environmental conservation. Although Brazil has one of the world’s most complete legislation, its environmental management capacity has been tested, just like all the rest of the international community, for the water use conflict intensification. Such conflicts potentially intensify after the population grow, the market globalization which mostly reflects in the water resources throughout the virtual water traffic, and the global warming. The water resources management capacity, therefore, comes after the water use demands intelligence and management and its compatibilization to the watershed environmental conservation. The environmental conservation itself is mostly achieved after an appropriated water valuation, which is a key factor to the balance of the water budget all over the watersheds. Such achievement will affect not only the way water use conflicts are solved, but also the effectiveness of environmental conservation measures and the technological advances for the coming changes in water use in the country, since it has already begun in developed countries. In this sense, opportunities to the Brazilian water management system efficiency increase depend on mapping and facing rising problems from the food production, energy generation and water conservation in that country.