Hydrosedimentological dynamics in the Sirinhaém River basin relating precipitation and water processes

Abstract

Knowledge of the components of the hydrological cycle is of fundamental importance for the development of measures aimed at responsible and sustainable management of water resources. Therefore, evaluating how the hydrosedimentological dynamics behaves over time and space is a relevant contribution that hydrological modeling methodologies provide to decision makers. Assessing these dynamics is especially crucial in watersheds that have a strong presence of agricultural activities, and are under tropical rainfall regimes, since high rainfall contributes to erosive processes in unprotected soils, which drives sediment production. To analyze these dynamics, the SWAT (Soil & Water Assessment Tools) model was used in the Sirinhaém river basin, in the state of Pernambuco, a basin that has a strong presence of sugarcane culture. It was observed the great control that the pluviometric indices exert on the surface runoff and sediment production, and that the model has great capacity to determine the areas that most contribute to the sedimentary dynamics in the basin. In this way, this methodology proves to be adequate for the provision of spatially and temporally distributed data, as a way of subsidizing the management of water resources in a rational way, aiming at their conservation.