ENTRE RIOS E PORTOS: IMPACTOS SOCIOAMBIENTAIS DO PROJETO HIDROPORTUÁRIO NO MUNICÍPIO DE COARI, AMAZONAS

Abstract

It is well known that development projects designed for the Amazon have a significant environmental impact when implemented without a focus on sustainability. Given this issue, this study presents research on the socio-environmental impacts resulting from the implementation of the project designed to build a major port for the municipality of Coari, Amazonas. These environmental effects will contribute to the emergence of social impacts by causing soil erosion along the banks of the Solimões River, thereby increasing the risk to homes located in the affected areas. In this regard, the study seeks to identify the factors that promote or intensify this erosion process in the port project of the municipality under study. To conduct this survey, we used a literature review to identify the main factors that promote soil erosion in the Amazon. Additionally, field research was conducted to verify the contributing factors, using geotechnological tools for the collection and manipulation of geographic data that allowed for the identification of the primary erosive agent in the research subject: anthropogenic activity, responsible for altering the natural landscape to enable the construction of port structures, compounded by rainfall, resulting in accelerated soil erosion. Thus, it became clear how important it is to conduct environmental studies focused on the construction of port projects to be carried out in Amazonian cities, which, due to their geographical location on the banks of rivers of recent geological formation, become targets of intense erosion processes, known in the region as the “landslides” phenomenon.