Introducing Eco-gamma: A novel environmental impact index for water quantity and quality evaluation

Abstract

The main motivation of this work is the creation and proposal of a new index that measures the environmental impact of water quality degradation. There are many methods that currently assess impacts based on the quantity of water consumed or some specific effects on human health but not a transversally accepted method for the change in water quality due human or natural pollution. The first chapter of this report is the introduction to the subject and background information supporting the main ideas. It is established that the property the index will be developed from is the growth rate of the living forms inhabiting an aquatic environment. Then, a summary of the literary review performed is presented in chapter 2. The most relevant findings of the review are the gamma concept and the cardinal model, both which are later used as the basis for the index development, called Eco-gamma due its inspiration in the gamma concept. This chapter is complemented with the description of different properties of the water that may affect the growth rate of their living forms and a list of possible pollution sources. Next chapter is the index development, where some relevant parameters are characterized from the previous review, which are needed to be included in the form of the cardinal model adopted. A back-up for temperature and other typical variables is set. After that, the index mathematical expression is presented, along with a discussion of its most relevant characteristics. Finally, categories of impact are defined according to the possible values of Eco-gamma index. Chapter 5 corresponds to the application of the index. It includes a basic example together with a more complex problem. All the assumptions are explained, which are typical tasks in real life applications. The closure chapter of conclusions has final discussions about the index and mentions possible guidelines and future tasks to improve and expand the index basis and applications of this work.