Dinâmica hidrossedimentológica do Rio Urucuia, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Studies about solid discharge on water bodies are important for water resource management, as sediments directly affect water quality and reservoirs siltation. Since the concentration of suspended sediments is related to spectral behavior, products obtained by orbital remote sensing can corroborate research on hydrosedimentological dynamics in rivers. The Urucuia river is an important tributary along the left bank of São Francisco River in the northwestern mesoregion of Minas Gerais. In this context, the objective of the present study was to analyze the hydrosedimentological dynamics of the Urucuia river watershed considering field data as well as the applicability of TM sensor-Landsat 5 to predict suspended load concentration. The results showed that the average rainfall in the basin is 1,305.4 mm, with an annual outflow of 314.9 mm. A sediment discharge curve with r² equal to 0.88 was obtained from monitored flow and suspended sediment data from the Arinos-Montante station. The specific production of supended sediment was classified as “moderate”, being 95.1 Mg.km-2.year-1. Landsat 5 bands 2, 3 and 4 are the ones that present the highest correlation with the suspended sediment concentration in Urucuia River, being, respectively, 0.546, 0.587 and 0.466.