| Title: | Impact of changes in land use in the flow of the Pará River Basin, MG |
| Authors: | Rodrigues, E.L., M.A.T. Elmiro, F.D.A. Braga, C.M. Jacobi and R.D. Rossi |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Journal: | Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental |
| Volume (Issue): | 19(1) |
| Pages: | 70-76 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.1590/1807-1929/agriambi.v19n1p70-76 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | land use change assessment |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 12,300 km^2 Para River a tributary of the Upper São Francisco River, located in the south central part of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Plant cover plays an essential role in the maintenance and balance of the hydrological cycle, performing functions in the control of water availability, which guarantee flow permanence. The use of mathematical models is an alternative to represent the hydrological system and help in the understanding of phenomena involving the variables of the water cycle, in order to anticipate and predict impacts from potential changes in land use. In the present study, the hydrological model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to analyse the dynamics of flow and water flow in the Pará River Basin, Minas Gerais, Brazil, aiming to evaluate the impact caused by changes in land use in water availability. The adjusted model was assessed by the coefficient of efficiency of Nash-Sutcliffe (between -0.057 to -0.059), indicating high correlation and coefficient of residual mass (0.757 to 0.793) and therefore a satisfactory fit. An increase of about 10% in the basin flow was estimated, as a function of changes in land use, when simulating the removal of the original ‘Cerrado’ vegetation and of the seasonal semideciduous forest for pasture implementation in 38% of the basin. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | ‘Cerrado’, seasonal semideciduous forest, flow |