3rd Switch Scientifc Meeting, Belo Horizonte, 30 de Novembro - 4 de dezembro de 2008

An Assessment of an Urban Stream Restoration Project in Brazil

Diego R. Macedo, Antnio P. Magalhes Jr
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Instituto de Geocincias Depto de Geografia

Pablo Moreno, Ana Paula Eller, Lurdemar Tavares, Marcos Callisto

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Instituto de Cincias Biolgicas Depto. Biologia Geral,
Laboratrio de Ecologia de Bentos
Key words: Monitoring of Water Quality, Bioassesment, Physical Habitat Assessment, Baleares Creek,
Drenurbs Program, Belo Horizonte.

INTRODUCTION
This research is part of the actions enrolled by project SWITCH Sustainable
Water Management Improves Tomorrow's Cities' Health, which is headed by
UNESCOs IHE (Institute for Water Education, located in Delft, Netherlands) and
composed by a network of 32 institutions, distributed in 15 countries, to which belong
the Government of Belo Horizonte (PBH) and the Universidade Federal de Minas
Gerais (UFMG). Within the actions under the responsibility of the PBH, the Drenurbs
program stands out, deserving special attention. This program is focused on creek
restoration in Belo Horizonte as a way to improve sanitation and environmental quality
and by this promoting the improvement of life quality in the city. The program involves
not only the restoration of polluted creeks, but their complete sanitation, risk
management (risk of flooding, risk to public health), erosion control at the catchment
and river bed, and a housing program addressed to people living in risky areas
(improvement of housing conditions, removing people from risky areas) (PBH, 2003).
Under this perspective, the Drenurbs applies structural and urban interventions, along
with environmental education initiatives, on the intra-urban watersheds of Belo
Horizontes territory.
Even though the restoration of streams natural ecological conditions is not one
the objectives of the Drenurbs, the design of some interventions allows this goal to be
reached. This is the case of the Baleares Creek, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The UK Ecological Restoration Society defines restoration as the intentional
process of change of one location to its natural/original form. The target is to simulate

Correponding author: diegorm@ufmg.br

3rd Switch Scientifc Meeting, Belo Horizonte, 30 de Novembro - 4 de dezembro de 2008

the structure, function, diversity and dynamics of a particular ecosystem, according to

its historical characteristics (Riley, 1998). However, revisiting the rivers original form,
in many cases, is impossible (Wade et all, 1998). In fact, when this type of intervention
is presented, it is most commonly drawn to small watershed areas (Brown, 2000), like
the ones observed in Belo Horizonte, as a recent approach of study in Brazil.
Projects for restoration of water courses are becoming more numerous, however,
they are rarely subjected to post-intervention systematic evaluation programs (Kondolf
& Micheli, 1995; Brown, 2000; Purcell, Friedrich & Resh, 2002; Davis et al., 2003).
Thus, the mistakes and successes are not measured, and there is no progress in the field
of urban stream restoration (Kondolf & Micheli, 1995; Purcell, Friedrich & Resh,
2004).
In this context, the objective of this research was to evaluate if there has been
improvement in the river environments quality (with physical, chemical and biological
parameters) from the impacted situation (pre-restoration) to the current situation (postrestoration), using the temporal monitoring of such parameters for the Baleares Creek.

METHODS

The methodological procedures here used were based on tools selected

according to international literature on evaluation of urban stream restoration programs:
(i) monitoring of water quality (Charbonneau & Resh, 1992; Gumiero et al., 1998;
Davis et al., 2003), (ii) biomonitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates (Charbonneau &
Resh, 1992; Gumiero et al., 1998; Purcell, Friedrich & Resh, 2002); (iii) rapid habitat
assessment protocol (Brown 2000; Greenwood-Smith, 2002; NCSU Water Quality
Group, 2006).
Since 2003, several field campaigns of water quality monitoring and
biomonitoring of benthic macroinvertebrates in the Baleares Creek have occurred,
assuming that the stream belong to the headwaters of the Velhas river watershed. This is
an initiative of the Projeto Manuelzo/UFMG and the Laboratrio de Ecologia de
Bentos (ICB/UFMG) and has been developed in the Transdisciplinary and
Transinstitucional Nucleous for das Velhas River Revitalization (NUVELHAS). Every
three months, samples of water and sediment are collected for physical-chemical,
bacteriological and biological analysis, and the river environment evaluation protocol
proposed by Callisto et al. (2002) is applied. The collections are equally distributed on

3rd Switch Scientifc Meeting, Belo Horizonte, 30 de Novembro - 4 de dezembro de 2008

the hydrological year, with two campaigns during the dry period (May-September) and
two in the rainy season (October-April) (Moreno, 2008). It should be noted that the
studied period corresponds to the stage from September 2003 to September 2004 (prerestoration), and from November 2007 to August 2008 (restoration/post-restoration).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A significant improvement in the physical-chemical and bacteriological

parameters for the Baleares Creek, which produces good expectations about the water
conditions for human use was observed. These results show that, from the prerestoration moment to the present time, the level of thermotolerant coliform values
dropped sharply from over 24,000 MPN to nearly zero. The physical-chemical
parameters also followed this trend, with particularly good results for the dissolved
oxygen concentrations, which went from conditions considered very low (below 1 mg
L-1) to the current values above 7 mg L-1. Nutrient concentrations in water also
presented improvements: total nitrogen declined from over 40 mg L-1 for less than 0,05
mg L-1 and total phosphorus, from over 3 mg L-1 for less than 0,15 mg L-1. This value
shows that the waters from Baleares Creek can be used for human supply before the
simple treatment, like fruits and vegetables irrigation and fishery in agreement with
Brazilian environmental legislation (CONAMA, 2005).
The Rapid Habitat Assessment Protocol also indicates improvement of scores in
the study area. The protocol results suggest a change in the Baleares Creek category,
since it has progressed from impacted state in the pre-restoration period to the actual
altered state. These improvements are mainly related to the apparent conditions of the
water and the sediments, such as color, odor, oil presence and physical habitat increase.
The biological data also points to a trend of improvement in water quality, once
in the current stage (post-restoration) is observed the presence of a new family of
macroinvertebrate

(Ceratopogonidae,

Diptera)

with

significant

abundance

of

individuals, which had not yet been observed, besides the presence of other families in
smaller numbers and in sporadic samples. Despite these new families have some
tolerance for organic pollution, they suggesting the increase in water quality and
ecological conditions, because in the pre-restoration moment there were only very
tolerant organisms (Chironomidae and Psychodidade, Diptera). These benthic

3rd Switch Scientifc Meeting, Belo Horizonte, 30 de Novembro - 4 de dezembro de 2008

composition changes are an evident consequence of the restoration project initiatives in

the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte city.
Besides allowing the understanding of the processes involved in the urban
stream restoration practices, the evaluation of this type of intervention has great
importance in the progress of a still incipient field of study in Brazil and in SouthAmerican countries.

Acknowledgments
Authors are specially gratefull for the financial support by CNPq, CAPES,
FAPEMIG, UFMG and Projeto Manuelzo/UFMG.

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