SAQUA - sistema baseado em software livre para análise do comportamento da qualidade das águas fluviais: aplicado à bacia do rio Paraíba do Sul.

Abstract

This dissertation involved the development of SAQUA System (for Fluvial Water Quality Analysis). SAQUA allows graphical analysis of physical-chemical parameters time series for assessing river water quality. SAQUA takes input data from the generated text file in Hidroweb, ANA´s (Brazilian Water Agency) hydrological database, available on its Internet site. SAQUA works as an interface that allows the spatio-temporal analysis of user-defined water quality parameters. The interface was built using MapServer, HTML and PHP, SQL queries and using Apache Web server. Applying a dynamic language like PHP allowed the use of internal resources through Mapserver functions that interact more flexibly with present and future codes, besides interacting with the HTML code itself. The system output is a graphic representation of the time series for each parameter and a location map showing stations under analysis, which are user defined, generally associated to a river basin. Both for time series graphical representation as for map format, there is a color code showing stations for which eventually parameters are out of established limits in the Brazilian CONAMA 357/05 resolution. CONAMA resolution use-class which should be applied on the analysis is also user defined. A case study involving the Paraíba do Sul River Basin, southeastern Brazil was taken. The implemented system showed excellent results and potential as a computational tool on supporting water resources planning and management. It is noteworthy that the entire system has been developed from software released under the GPL free software. These also demonstrate the potential of GLP free software to develop tools in the field of water resources.