Abstract
The semi-arid regions of northeastern Brazil have historically suffered from water shortage. In this context, monitoring and modeling the soil moisture’s dynamics with hydrological models in natural (Caatinga) and degraded (Pasture) regions is of fundamental importance to understand the dynamics of hydrological processes. Therefore, this work aims to evaluate the hydraulic parameters in Caatinga and Pasture areas using the Hydrus-1D inverse method. Thus, five soil hydraulic models present in Hydrus-1D were used, allowing the comparison of the single-porosity model with more complex models, which consider the dual porosity and the hysteresis of the porous medium. The hydraulic models showed better adjustments in the Caatinga area (RMSE = 0.01–0.02, R2 = 0.61–0.97) than in the Pasture area (RMSE = 0.01–0.03, R2 = 0.61–0.90). Regarding the hydraulic parameters, for all models, the Pasture showed smaller saturated hydraulic conductivity and water content values of the mobile region than the Caatinga. This fact demonstrates the negative impact of compaction and change in natural vegetation in the Brazilian semi-arid. The dual-porosity model presented the best fit to the data measured in the Pasture area. However, a single-porosity model could be considered representative of the Caatinga area. The results showed that Caatinga areas contribute to maintaining soil moisture and increasing the water storage in semi-arid regions.
Highlights
IntroductionThe semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil has historically suffered from water shortage [1]
The Brazilian northeast is influenced by several meteorological systems, where the intertropical convergence zone (ZCIT) is the main one [54]
The introduction of the dual-porosity model improves the accuracy in describing the hydraulic behavior of the porous medium [29]
Summary
The semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil has historically suffered from water shortage [1]. This area is characterized by the Caatinga biome, which has been suffering from anthropization processes. In the Brazilian semi-arid region, the increase in the intensity of land use and the reduction of native vegetation cover causes the degradation of natural resources [2]. The removal of the caatinga, due to deforestation, for the implantation of pastures and agricultural crops can cause soil degradation. This fact contributes to changes in the dynamics of water transfer processes in the soil, plant and atmosphere system
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