METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTION FOR THE ANALYSIS OF EMERGENT FRAGILITY: case study of the municipality of Colombo, Paraná.

Abstract

This paper proposes an adaptation of the methodology of Environmental Fragility in order to detect Emergent Fragility.  We discuss the need for methods for measuring the impact of agriculture  which take different agricultural practices and ways of using natural resources into account. This methodological analysis is carried out through a case study of the municipality of Colombo, Paraná, in the Greater Curitiba Metropolitan Region.  This municipality is situated in an area of water springs and above an aquifer. It can be characterized by the presence of conventional and intensive vegetable production as well as the cultivation of several annual crops.   We elaborated several charts on Environmental Fragility (Potential and Emergent) and evaluated the impact that agriculture has had on the quality and availability of water resources in the area we studied.  We went on to generate new parameters for distinguishing agricultural practices and their respective environmental impacts. Data have shown that, to the extent that different forms of agricultural use of soil are recognized and analyzed with greater precision, prospects for emergent fragility also vary. In the case of Colombo, data show that capacity for soil protection is greater when our proposed methodology is implemented, yet reaffirm the notion that agriculture that is practiced in areas where vegetables are grown implies high levels of soil vulnerability, also affecting water sources. Furthermore, we are led to conclude that the methodological procedures we propose are important in order to break with an erroneous view that generalizes the environmental impacts that agriculture causes, and in order to place greater value on the use of more  conservationist agricultural techniques.