The article "Mapping of urban areas susceptible to the floods of the Taquari River in Lajeado / RS" was awarded as the best work of Area 4 - Water resources and wastewater in the 6th International Congress of Technology for the Environment (Fiema). The research is the result of the course paper by Sofia Royer Moraes, graduated from the program of Environmental Engineering of Univates - now offered as Environmental and Sanitary Engineering - under the guidance of Professor Rafael Rodrigo Eckhardt.

In the research, Sofia carried out the mapping and analysis of the urban areas and buildings susceptible to the floods of the Taquari River in the city of Lajeado / RS. In order to do so, records of floods occurred in the municipality from 1980 to 2015 were used. According to the graduate, it was possible to validate the information with the flood occurred on October 10, 2015, which reached the level of 23 .81 m, being 10.81 m above the reference level.

"Areas affected by floods from the 19 m level to the 30 m level were mapped. At the topographic level of 19 m, the total area covered by the flood was 25.98 ha, increasing to 112.15 ha at the maximum level studied (30 m), which represents 11.50% of the total area of ​​the municipality", she explained. According to the study, the number of buildings affected can reach 1,039 units when Taquari river reaches 30 m, but with a flood of small magnitude, in which the river reaches 21 m, 98 buildings are already affected. 

The article was produced with the collaboration of the researchers Guilherme Garcia de Oliveira and Cláudio Wilson Mendes Júnior, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Ufrgs).

 

Contact with research during the undergraduate program

Sofia had her first contact with undergraduate scientific research as a Scientific Initiation scholarship holder.

“I worked with different projects, within the environmental theme. All of them were challenging with big questions. To be sure, this was very captivating during the undergraduate program, in terms of wanting more and, consequently, having more questions, challenges and answers”. 

Regarding the chosen program, Sofia says that Environmental Engineering allowed her to develop an integrated view on the socioeconomic and environmental impacts, positive and negative, resulting from anthropic actions. "Among them, the irregular occupation of areas susceptible to natural disasters. The knowledge related to climatology, hydrology, geoprocessing, statistics, among others, that were applied to the relevant problem of floods, resulted in the full development of the research that originated the published article", said the graduate, adding that what she likes most about research is the possibility of studying and developing something useful for society.

 

Environmental and Sanitary Engineering in Winter Entrance Examination

One of the programs that receives subscriptions in the Winter Entrance Examination of Univates is the Environmental and Sanitary Engineering. The program is aimed at those who wish to work in the areas of environment, environmental sanitation, environmental technologies and renewable energies, and allows students to develop skills and competences recognized by the scientific and professional fields in social and environmental demands. Subscriptions can be made from April 23th to June 5th. The writing test will be applied on June 10th. More information can be obtained at 0 800 7 07 08 09.