Diagnóstico parcial da arborização viária sob rede elétrica no Estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

One of the challenges faced by the urban forestry managers is the compatibility between the trees and the power grids, in which the inadequate development and location of certain species may cause power outages, sidewalk lifting with impairments to urban accessibility and interference in equipment and buildings. Within this perspective, this study covered 80 electric circuits, in 35 cities in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which showed the highest levels of power outages in 2011 and 2012. We evaluated 1,643 trees, classified into 41 families and 130 species, 54 of which were exotic and 76 native and, of these, only 13.84% were compatible with the wiring, due to its size. Little more than half of the evaluated trees (52.28%) were pruned because of conflicts with wires, with the Licania tomentosa, Poincianella pluviosa and Ligustrum lucidum species being the most frequent. The ten most frequent species amounted to 60.32% of the evaluated trees. The Odum richness indexes, Shannon-Wiener index and Pielou equability, were evaluated in the surveyed circuits and it was noticed that, in general, the species were randomly planted, without following a management plan regarding trees in the urban area. Researches regarding the pruning cycle for the species that have the most conflicts with the power grids, as well as the effective management of the most relevant phytosanitary problems and the identification of species compatible with the electrical wires may assist public administration and concessionaries of electric power.