Proposta de indicadores para avaliação de impacto ambiental de parques eólicos na percepção dos habitantes: o caso do Assentamento Zumbi/Rio do Fogo-RN

Abstract

The present study was based on the absence of indicators and the environmental perception of local agents directly affected in the evaluation of the environmental impacts of wind farms, analyzing the case of a settlement located at Rio do Fogo - RN. The objective was to propose indicators for the evaluation of environmental impacts in the analysis of the environmental perception of the inhabitants of the Zumbi/Rio do Fogo settlement. The methodology used for this applied, descriptive and exploratory research was: bibliographic research, documentary research and case study. Therefore, it started with a theoretical review about the concepts addressed in the study and seeking the understanding of the context of the use of indicators in the environmental impacts of wind farms in Rio Grande do Norte. Then, we proceeded to study the case of the proposed indicators based on the perception of the settlers, where semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 settled families (number defined by the saturation criterion). The interviews were analyzed through the guidelines of the content analysis, which allowed the identification of the environmental impacts and the proposition of the indicators. As a result of the analysis of all the interviews were found 22 environmental impacts classified between social environment, economic environment and natural environment. In order to propose the indicators, the environmental impacts mentioned by only one interviewee were excluded, in order to guarantee the representativeness defined by the saturation criterion based on the repetition of responses. Finally, 15 indicators were proposed which were capable of monitoring and generating relevant information about the impacts most felt by the inhabitants of the settlement in the economic, social and natural environments. It was concluded that environmental perception is, in fact, a valuable subsidy for the study of an area and the generation of information. In the view of the inhabitants of the settlement, the most relevant impacts were those that most affected their daily lives, for example: a decrease in agricultural activity, an increase in per capita income, socioenvironmental conflicts, increased sound pressure level (noise from wind turbines) , improvements in the infrastructure of the settlement, among others. Finally, new studies were recommended to complement, validate and apply the indicators, including other points of view, such as from experts.