António Vieira

As inundações do rio Douro em 1909: um contributo para o seu estudo a partir dos arquivos históricos da agência portuguesa do ambiente

Between 17 and 25 December 1909, the population of the city of Porto and Gaia watched helplessly the destruction of their riverside areas, by the flood of the Douro River. The flood caused immense losses on both banks of the Douro, forcing the intervention of various state agencies for their subsequent rehabilitation. From a set of documents of the authorship of the 1a Direcao dos Servicos Fluviais e Maritimos was possible to identify the interventions that were planned, as well as the progress of work, and, from there, also identify the areas affected by this catastrophic event and the real extent of their effects on riverside areas of Porto and Gaia.

A IMPORTÂNCIA DAS FONTES HISTÓRICAS PARA O CONHECIMENTO DOS CURSOS DE ÁGUA: O CASO DO RIO AVE (NOROESTE DE PORTUGAL)

The Portuguese Environment Agency holds an important archive resulting from the century-old activity of the Water Services in charge of water management and water resources planning, which should be studied and made public. The documental and technical collections of the former Douro Water Services (SHD) represent an opportunity to understand a public institution, where water and its use profoundly mark social relationships and economic activities. The archive tell of case studies on the uses of public water for different purposes and the modalities of its use. Thus, several areas of scientific interest are taken into account in the analysis of these processes, as well as the problems, impacts and limitations of human activities on the management of the Public Waterways Domain. This article presents case studies of particular interest in historical terms related to the Ave River basin, located on the coastal region of northwest Portugal and the evolution of its watercourses’ morphometric features.