GEOPROCESSING AND COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF THE WATERSHED RIVER JEQUITINHONHA, BRAZIL
Remote Sensing, Hydrological Model, Geographic Information Systems.
The hydrological and morphological aspects of a watershed are directly associated with the dynamics of land cover and use. The result of anthropogenic actions interferes with the environmental balance of the basic unit of analysis - watershed. In the context of the watershed, rivers are components that present themselves as the destination of the water trajectory and reflect both natural and anthropogenic dynamics. In the watershed Jequitinhonha River – BHRJ, changes in land cover and use, and mainly the construction of the Itapebi Dam from the 1990s onwards, interfered with the water and sediment flow to the sections downstream of the dam. In the lower course of the BHRJ, the accelerated process of erosion of the banks, the silting of the rivers and the consequent redirection of the river course indicate that possible changes in the water and morphological dynamics are underway in that area. The present work aims to analyze the effects of changes in land cover and use, and particularly the construction of the Itapebi dam, on the water and morphological characteristics of the lower course of the Jequitinhonha River. Therefore, the physical and hydrological scenarios for the period before and after the construction of the aforementioned dam will be analyzed. To achieve the proposed objective, geoprocessing and hydrological modeling are used to analyze the dynamics of land cover and use in the study area. In this way, the spatio-temporal changes in land cover and use, precipitation and flows in the study area are analyzed, considering the period before and after the construction of the Itapebi dam. The morphological aspects of the BHRJ are also analyzed, relating the morphometric parameters with the erosion processes. From the integration of a set of physical and climatic data, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is applied to model the study area, considering the two periods mentioned. It is expected that the integration between the analysis of the dynamics of land cover and use, the spatial and temporal behavior of precipitation and flows, morphological aspects and modeling can help in understanding the dynamics identified in the lower course of the Jequitinhonha River.