Integrating Water Resources Management with Technological Disaster Risk Management
Case of Mariana's Disaster and Doce River Basin
Keywords:
Water resources, Man-made disaster, Risk management, Mariana dam break, Doce River, Hydrographic basinAbstract
The collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in 2015 had severe consequences for the Doce River basin in Brazil, recognised as one of the worlds largest dam-related disasters. Brazilian legislation stipulates that adverse events affecting water resources, including technological disasters (TDs), must be addressed at the basin level. However, effective integration of Water Resources Management (WRM) and Technological Disaster Risk Management (TDRM) in water planning remains uncommon, with limited research available. This study seeks to understand and promote WRM-TDRM integration. The Doce River basin serves as a case study, with an analysis of the TDs impact on the Integrated Water Resources Plan (IWRP Doce) from its inception in 2010 through the 2023 revision. We examined whether WRM-TDRM integration were included in the Terms of Reference for both editions. A SWOT analysis revealed that TDRM had not been incorporated into the IWRP, and despite the disasters scale, only minimal adjustments have been made. This highlights the need for TDs to be explicitly addressed in future Terms of Reference. The guidelines proposed in this study aim to support WRM-TDRM integration in river basins facing similar vulnerabilities to those of the Doce River basin.
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