River avulsions on the Taquari megafan, Pantanal wetland, Brazil

The Pantanal wetland is located in a tectonically active interior sedimentary basin in west-central Brazil. The south-flowing Paraguay River is the trunk-river of an alluvial constructional landform comprising several large alluvial fans, the largest one of which is the Taquari megafan. The Taquari River flows in two distinct geomorphologic zones within the megafan. Entrenched on sediments of Pleistocene fan lobes, the Taquari River flows in a 3 to 5 km wide meander belt in the upper fan, where avulsion is hindered by entrenchment. Downstream of the intersection point, stream discharge progressively decreases and the Taquari River becomes narrow and shallow toward the Paraguay River plain. Within the distributary fan lobe, the channel-levee sandy complex is topographically higher than the adjacent floodplains and avulsion is a natural consequence of crevasses in the natural levees. Many channel avulsions have occurred during the last decades and documented cases show that significant channel changes may take place in a few years. Beginning with crevassing in 1988 and ending with the abandonment of the former channel in 1998, the river completely changed course in the lower fan. Presently, a major avulsion is occurring in the upper portion of the growing fan lobe, where many crevasses have appeared in the natural levees with associated splays onto the floodbasin. New anastomosed channels have formed north of the Taquari River, but downstream of them the flow is unconfined and the water spreads into natural floodbasins. This avulsion is still in process and allows observation of channel evolution, the geomorphic features produced, the sedimentary processes involved, and resulting effects. If the new channels do not rejoin the main channel, the river mouth may abandon its present master channel and shift to a position a hundred kilometers north from its present position. A large volume of sediment has been transferred to the floodbasin, with progradation of crevasse splay deposits over fine overbank sediments. Many geomorphic features, recognizable in satellite and radar images, clearly show that avulsion has occurred many limes before in the Taquari River. Avulsion belt deposits and former diverted channels testify to ancient avulsion events within the fan lobe and show that progradation of splays onto the floodbasin is the most important infilling process within the Taquari distributary fan lobe. The avulsion process in the lower Taquari River has accelerated in the last 30 years, along with the magnitude of flooding. Pasture and intensive agriculture in the catchment area has increased the sediment supply to the wetland, but larger floods are also a consequence of higher rainfall since 1973. Avulsion and floods have been a cause of great concern among the local population and landowners. Before human intervention in attempting to control floods, however, a better understanding of the avulsive river system is needed, especially because a major navigation project including the channelization of the Paraguay River was recently proposed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Soil loss risk and habitat quality in streams of a meso-scale river basin

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A radar reflectivity-runoff model for use in flood warning

This model connects directly the radar reflectivity data and hydrological variable runoff. The catchment is discretized in pixels (4 Km × 4 Km) with the same resolution of the CAPPI. Careful discretization is made so that every grid catchment pixel corresponds precisely to CAPPI grid cell. The basin is assumed a linear system and also time invariant. The forecast technique takes advantage of spatial and temporal resolutions obtained by the radar. The method uses only the measurements of the factor reflectivity distribution observed over the catchment area without using the reflectivity - rainfall rate transformation by the conventional Z-R relationships. The reflectivity values in each catchment pixel are translated to a gauging station by using a transfer function. This transfer function represents the travel time of the superficial water flowing through pixels in the drainage direction ending at the gauging station. The parameters used to compute the transfer function are concentration time and the physiographic catchment characteristics. -from Authors

Alterações hidrogeomorfológicas devido à dinâmica de uso da terra na Bacia Hidrográfica do Ribeirão Santa Gertrudes (SP)

Agricultural and mining activities are directly related to changes in natural landscapes. From the perspective of anthropogenic geomorphology supported by general systems theory, this research has developed, in order to identify and analyze changes in the land use, mainly from agriculture and the exploitation of clay, and its implications in the hydro-geomorphological characteristics in the Santa Gertrudes Stream watershed (SP). This area is within the context of the Ceramic Pole Santa Gertrudes (SP), which besides its importance as a supplier of raw material, is characterized as the largest center of international reference in ceramic tiles on the American continent. For this purpose, we made land use and geomorphology maps of two scenarios, corresponding to the years 1962 and 2006, which allowed the identification of changes caused by human activities on the landforms of the area, such as the increase in area of parcels intended for mining activity, which went from 3.1% to occupy 19% of the catchment area of the respective period and that, among other changes, gave rise to new forms of relief as, for example, in levels of pit mining abrupt and smooth. The results indicate that the main features of representative of human changes in relief are represented for opening of large clay mining pits and agricultural activities, which intensified the denudation and sedimentation processes in the Santa Gertrudes Stream watershed.

Modelagem dinâmica espacial aplicada na avaliação das mudanças da cobertura da terra no entorno de dutos utilizando autômatos celulares: estudo de caso duto ORBEL

Pós-graduação em Geociências e Meio Ambiente - IGCE

Dinâmica da paisagem na microbacia hidrográfica do rio Mojuí, oeste do estado do Pará

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Irrigação e Drenagem) - FCA

As chuvas e a erosividade na bacia hidrográfica do rio Jordão-PR

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uso de geotecnologias na análise temporal dos impactos da urbanização na sub-bacia do Córrego Sem Nome em Ilha Solteira/SP

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Civil - FEIS

Caracterização de impacto ambiental no solo em um aterro de pequeno porte

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise da sedimentação cretácea no Triângulo Mineiro e sua correlação com áreas adjacentes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Mudanças no uso e cobertura da terra na bacia hidrográfica do Ribeirão do Rebojo entre 1971/1972 e 2007/2008. UGRHI Pontal do Paranapanema - SP

Pós-graduação em Geografia - FCT

Severe population decline of marsh deer, Blastocerus dichotomus (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae), a threatened species, caused by flooding related to a hydroelectric power plant

Balancing power production and environmental conservation can be problematic. The objective of this study was to investigate the abundance of marsh deer in the Paraná River Basin, above the Sergio Motta (Porto Primavera) Dam, before and after the impact of the dam closure. A fixed-wing, flat window aircraft was used to survey study transects. Observations were recorded based on the distance sampling line transect method, assuming that the detection probability decreases with increased distance. The abundance of marsh deer in the survey region prior to flooding was estimated to be 974 individuals (CV = 0.23). The overall abundance dropped from 974 to 444 (CV = 0.26) individuals after flooding, an overall reduction of 54%. This reduction can be attributed to the direct impact of the flooding process, but it was likely exacerbated by indirect effects, such as increased disease, hunting, and reduction in food availability. Prior to flooding, the marsh deer was distributed widely throughout the dam's catchment area; however, the marsh deer habitat was almost completely destroyed by the flooding process. This situation highlights the need to implement management strategies that ensure the survival of the remaining fragmented population.

Pagamento por serviços ambientais: estudo de caso: simulação da aplicação do programa do “Produtor de Água” na bacia do Rio Pirajibu

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Biologia reprodutiva de Cyphocharax modestus (Characiformes: Curimatidae) no rio Taquari (alto rio Paranapanema), São Paulo, Brasil

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBB

O consórcio do Rio Jacaré: limites e desafios para a cooperação intermunicipal e para o desenvolvimento regiona

This article has, as its main subject of reflection, a brazilian experience of intermunicipal cooperation named the "Consórcio Intermunicipal pela Conservação da Natureza na Bacia do Rio Jacaré Pepira" better known as "Consórcio do Rio Jacaré", located in São Paulo State, Brazil. Having its origin in 1985, the consortium is considered the first inter-municipal experience of cooperation witch tried to associate regional development with environmental issues. The research, qualitative in the method, designed as single case study and supported by data collected through desk research, systematized information on the projects and activities of the Consortium, pointing among the members those which effectively beneficed from the supposed cooperation, along with the difficulties faced and the context which led the consortium to the state of stagnation in which plunged after 1999. The results showed that, despite its historical and regional importance, the consortium could not be seen as a management model, being weakened by the political and institutional environment, the local realities, the absence of maturity of partners for joint cooperation, in addition to the lack of clarity on the regional dimension of the projects.