Estimativa do assoreamento de um pequeno reservatório do semiárido rural através do estudo dos solos e de fontes de sedimento

Abstract

This study aims to estimate the sedimentation of the Boqueirão, located in the 12-km² Aiuaba Experimental Basin - BEA, through detailed survey of its soil classes, hydrosedimentological modelling in the watershed, analysis of the deposition and distribution of the bed material in the reservoir through mineralogical analysis and geoprocessing tools. The soil classes survey is performed through sampling and analysis of soil from different areas of the basin, where changes on soil and landscape characteristics may be visually noted. From the soil survey four distinct classes of soils are identified in the BEA: ARGISSOLOS AMARELOS Eutróficos típicos, LATOSSOLOS VERMELHO-AMARELO Distróficos típicos, LUVISSOLOS CRÔMICOS Pálico planossolicos and NEOSSOLOS LITÓLICOS Distróficos fragmentários. The reservoir silting is estimated for the period 2000 to 2008 using the rating curve of sediment fluxes immediately upstream of the Boqueirao reservoir and daily water discharges generated using the model WASASED. Comparing the erosion values estimated by USLE with the sediment yield calculated by the sediment rating curve, a sediment delivery ratio of 3.4% is found and applied to the whole period since the dam was built. Since the Aiuaba catchment is located inside of an Ecological Protection Area of IBAMA, preserved since the year of 1977, the estimate of sediment yield for the initial period (1932-1976) takes into account two different scenarios of land use in the watershed concerning the percentage of agricultural use, and another characterization for the most recent period (1977-2011), based on the current survey of land use. The identification of sediment sources is performed using the erosion model and GIS techniques, with overlapping maps of each USLE parameters. To relate the deposited material in the reservoir bed to the sediment sources, samples of the reservoir deposit and the soil classes of the catchment are collected and analyzed techniques of X-Ray Diffraction To estimate the sediment deposition pattern at the reservoir, the sediment deposit thickness is assumed to be proportional to the water column at that point derived from a detailed topographical survey of the lake performed in this study.. The simulation of hydrosedimentological processesusing the USLE modelling indicates that sediment yield at the catchment may vary from 11,8 to 24,0 tonkm-2year-¹, which results in siltation rates ranging from 1.5 to 2.7% decade-¹, depending on the soil use scenario considered. The silting of the Boqueirão reservoir, since its construction (1932), results in a storage capacity decrease of about 11.6% and 16,3% for the two soil use scenarios with 10% and 30% of agricultural use, respectively.. The results also show that the thickness of the deposited sediment is much less than that observed in the field, by opening of trenches, which indicates that the sediment deposition processes had already occurred previously, before the dam construction, due to local topographical features.