Name: FÁBIO LUIZ MAÇÃO CAMPOS
Publication date: 03/07/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANDRE LUIZ NASCENTES COELHO | Presidente |
| ANTONIO CELSO DE OLIVEIRA GOULART | Examinador Interno |
| DANIELLE DE ALMEIDA BRESSIANI | Coorientador |
| MONICA AMORIM GONÇALVES | Examinador Externo |
| ROBERTO JOSÉ HEZER MOREIRA VERVLOET | Examinador Externo |
Pages
Summary: Faced growing conflicts over water resources, alternatives for better planning of land use in
river basins that aim to increase water availability in times of scarcity and reduce the amount
of sediment and pollutants become necessary. One of the options for increasing water
availability is the application of Best Management Practices (BMPs) that increase base
flow and reduce the contribution of sediment and nutrients to watercourses. However, their
application can have considerable financial costs and require intervention in agricultural
areas. For this reason, it is important that, in order to better use the resources available
for soil and water conservation actions, the most appropriate locational alternatives are
found. To identify these areas, the use of hydrological models is a highly useful tool, as
they are capable of simulating in advance what the effect of applying a certain practice will
be in a certain location in the basin. Although research shows that relief exerts a strong
influence on water and sediment flows, there are still many questions to be understood
regarding the influence of the application of BMPs in different compartments. In this
context, this research contributes to the allocation of BMPs in river basins, investigating
above all the influences of relief characteristics on these procedures. One of the most
widely used models for assessing the impacts of this allocation, SWAT, has recently had
a fully revised version resulting in the SWAT+ hydrological model. This study used the
SWAT+ model to perform hydrological modeling of two small river basins and test the
effect of 5 BMPs on the water balance, water balance, water and sediment yield, water
availability and sediment load. The alternative scenarios showed that BMPs can be an
important alternative for increasing availability and ensuring water security in river basins.
In the simulated scenarios, BMPs increased minimum flow by up to 8.84% and reduced
maximum flows by up to 11.01%, in addition to having a considerable impact on reference
flows for water resource allocation. It was also demonstrated how land use and relief can
influence the effectiveness of BMPs and assist in the planning processes for the allocation
of these practices. An experiment was also conducted to evaluate the influence of relief
characteristics in different compartments of the basin through the use of the terrain
roughness index. The experiment showed that the index can be an alternative parameter
for planning the allocation of BMPs. The findings of the study expand knowledge about
the allocation of BMPs in river basins and open up new research opportunities on the use
of relief for planning interventions aimed at increasing basin resilience to climate change.
Keywords: Geomorphology. Best Management Practices. Water resources. Hydrological
Modelling.
