Ecological responses of three urban watercourse stretches after implementation of one-off recovering interventions: an integrated assessment

Abstract

Faced with the anthropic activities of urban streams stretches through\nrectification with concrete, there is a concern about the modifications\nof the aquatic habitats and consequent ecological damages to the\necosystems. Based on biophilic engineering, there is a great opportunity\nto idealize and test interventions to revitalize such hampered\necosystems. Hence, we verified the performance of biological and organic\nfactors, after the implementation of one-off interventions in three\nrivers using biophilic handmade materials and structural elements in\ntheir fixation. We carried out the project in urban stretches of\nconcrete bed streams, located in Sorocaba-SP, Southeast of Brazil. In\ntwo years, we conducted biweekly in situ and laboratory measurements to\ncharacterize the study sites, idealize, scale, implement the projects,\nand, evaluate the ecological responses of the implementations. We\ncollected sampling in two points: upstream and downstream interventions.\nWe evaluated the performance of the interventions through the analysis\nof SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) factors and\nby using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We presented the results\nthrough a decision-making matrix for stakeholders, which indicated that\nour ideas are of low cost and easy to implement. Then, we got the\nfollowing scenario of SWOT priorities: opportunity (58.55%), strength\n(24.71%), threat (10.74%), and weakness (6.00%). They demand constant\nefforts for maintenances and they need adjustments to a better\nunderstood by residents and the watershed management. We concluded that\nthe strengths observed in the project turn our idea replicable in any\npart because it attaches the idea of caring about the environment\nthrough biophilic techniques, and the weaknesses are liable to\nmodifications (improvements) in future projects that consider such\nproposal.