Watershed as a planning and management unit: from the conceptual debate to the Brazilian reality in environmental laws

Abstract

The hydrographic basin is a natural territorial unit delimited by the relief, which configures a drainage network and is the main source of water resources on Earth. Given this importance, the work aims to examine how the watershed can be used for planning and/or management, in view of the literature and environmental laws in Brazil. To this end, the following methodological procedures were carried out: I. integrative literature review on the Gale primary sources platform with the descriptors: “Hydrographic basin” AND planning unit; “Watershed” AND management unit, for the period from 2012 to 2022; II. narrative review of the 28 papers analyzed; III. collection and consultation of the main environmental laws in Brazil. Thus, it is seen that there is a willingness in the literature to extend the importance of the watershed beyond the planning and management of the water resources it produces, in the sense of integrating these with the other components of nature of which they are part and have a systemic and systematic relationship. dynamics. On the other hand, in the field of environmental laws, it appears that only in the National Water Resources Policy is the hydrographic basin officially adopted as a water resources management unit, however from the point of view of territory management there are challenges.