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Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Geociências (IGC) (Institutional affiliation from the last research proposal) Birthplace: Brazil
Ricardo Hirata is a Full Professor at the Institute of Geosciences of the University of São Paulo (USP) and a former Director of CEPAS|USP (Center for Groundwater Research). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Association of Subterranean Hydrology for Development (ALSHUD), serves on the Area Coordination in Geosciences of FAPESP, and is part of the IWA-Groundwater Management Team. He holds a degree in geology from UNESP and completed his master's and doctoral degrees at USP, as well as a postdoctoral degree at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He previously served as Vice President of the Brazilian Groundwater Association (ABAS) and is currently a consultant for UNESCO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He has also acted as an advisor to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the Groundwater Management Advisory Team (GWMATe) of the World Bank. Additionally, he is a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary in Canada and at the University of Costa Rica through the CARA Canada-Costa Rica Program. His past roles include Senior Hydrogeologist at the Geological Institute in São Paulo, Resident Hydrogeologist at CEPIS-World Health Organization in Peru, and Chief Hydrogeochemist for the Department of Water and Electric Energy in São Paulo. With 43 years of experience, he has extensively worked with water resources and groundwater in Brazil and over 30 countries, assisting companies, universities, and governments in managing water resources, including teaching professional courses. He has been named Honorary Citizen of Sucre (Bolivia) and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), distinguished as a Hydrogeologist of Latin America (ALSHUD), and recognized by ABAS for his contributions to Brazilian hydrogeology. In 2025, he received the CONFEA/CREA Mútua Medal of Merit. He holds a patent in Brazil for Eucalyremediation and has supervised 126 students, including 24 master's students, 18 doctoral students, and 8 postdoctoral researchers. Since 1984, he has published numerous works on hydrogeology, including reference manuals and books for PAHO/WHO, the World Bank, and UNESCO, which have been translated into English, Spanish, and Portuguese, supporting water resources management legislation in multiple countries. Since 2011, he has served as Associate Editor of the Bulletin of Water Resources and Development as well as Groundwater Resources and Management. He is a CNPq researcher 1B. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
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The characterization and remediation of aquifers extensively contaminated by nitrate in rural areas is still an unsolved problem. Traditionally, monitoring wells are used to aquifer contamination plumes definition, but they are constrained to delimit the impact from dispersed sources, such as agriculture. Remediation is even narrower, and managers usually abandon contaminated wells or rem…
Between 2013 and 2017, periods of drought generated a water supply crisis that affected 48% of Brazilian municipalities, causing severe public health and economic problems at a national scale. Traditional solutions, based on centralized single-source water systems, have been ineffective in Brazil and developing countries. The main objective of this project is to create new hydro-economic …
Nitrate is one of the most common contaminants in aquifers. Its origin is usually related to agricultural practices and on situ sanitation. In São Paulo, several studies have pointed to this problem, which also has occurred in many cities, even if they have sewerage mains for decades. The remediation of aquifers contaminated by nitrate is a major challenge in management, because, although…
Due to an increasing demographic pressure, the Metropolitan Region of Recife (RMR, the fifth largest metropolitan area in Brazil), went through remarkable water and land use changes over the last decades. These evolutions gave rise to numerous environmental consequences, such as a dramatic decline of the piezometric levels, groundwater salinization and contamination, This degradation of n…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
The hydrological crisis is defined as the lack of sufficient quantity and quality of water to meet the needs of a specific region during a given time. It occurs when three phenomena coincide: (i) reduced water availability or physical scarcity; (ii) inadequate water supply infrastructure or economic scarcity; and (iii) poor water resource management or managerial scarcity. While physical …
Nitrate contamination is an insidious problem that affects practically all aquifers in São Paulo, which are responsible for the total or partial public water supply of 80% of its municipalities. Although this topic has been studied for more than two decades, there is still no clear understanding of which mechanisms (e.g., biological, chemical, natural or anthropogenic) control nitrogen sp…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
The increasing development of human activities and productions are critical points for the increase in the contamination of soils and surface waters, among them, microplastics and synthetic organic polymers with sizes between 5 mm and 1 ¼m which, due to their high persistence in the environment, end up increasing the resulting environmental damage (like many aquatic and terrestrial organi…
Oxisol is a typical tropical soil and the most common one in the state of São Paulo. It is widely used for agriculture; however, it is acidic and poor in nutrients, demanding significant fertilizing applications. One potentially sustainable alternative is to reuse biochar previously used for nitrate removal from groundwater as a slow-release fertilizer. This material is a potential source…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have gained attention as emerging contaminants due to their persistence, widespread occurrence, and potential risks to human health and the environment. Their stability leads to accumulation in groundwater, posing a challenge for water quality management. Conventional adsorption materials, such granular activated carbon and ion exchange resins, e…
The Guarani Aquifer System (GAS), formed by the Botucatu and Piramboia formations, is the main source of water supply for the city of Bauru (SP). The SAG is a confined fossil water unit (with ages of approximately 600 k.a), which makes it a non-renewable and finite resource. This makes necessary for its planned exploitation, the estimation of the amount of stored water, from the interpret…
Nitrate contamination in urban aquifers arising from dispersed and multipoint sources has proven to be a difficult problem to solve, as it requires a high cost in its characterization, associated with many monitoring wells, and low efficiency in the classic treatment alternatives. In the State of São Paulo, dispersed contamination is mainly associated with the public sewage system, which,…
Management of groundwater is at an incipient stage in Brazil. Limitations are still greater in urban areas, where the location of many wells is not known and the problems, when detected, are related to several activities and users. Legislation on existent water resources does not comprehend the characteristics of groundwater. Thus, as in other metropolitan areas, Recife is inserted in a c…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
| 2 / 2 | Ongoing grants |
| 13 / 5 | Completed research grants |
| 10 / 10 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 34 / 14 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 1 / 1 | Ongoing scholarships abroad |
| 4 / 4 | Completed scholarships abroad |
| 64 / 36 | All research grants and scholarships |
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