Morphometric characteristics and hydrological dynamics in micro-basins with different land uses of cerrado soils in Mato Grosso

Abstract

Understanding the hydrologic regime, and monitoring runoff at the micro-basin scale is critical for understanding water availability, and for managing water resources in strategic biomes such as the cerrado. The objective of this research is to evaluate morphometric characteristics and the hydrologic regime and determine their relationships with soil characteristics and typical land-use in the cerrado biome. To reach this objective morphometric characterization, runoff and precipitation monitoring, and determination of the water retention curve were conducted in three micro-basins in the municipality of Campo Verde, Mato Grosso. These micro-basins each have a different, but regionally typical land-use and were selected strategically to represent this area of cerrado: agriculture, pasture and native vegetation. The results obtained allow for the analysis of the hydrologic regime throughout the period measured. Micro-basins with native vegetation and pasture, with greater altimetric range and more sandy soils, show greater erosion. Despite this, the micro-basin with pasture cover showed greater regulation of runoff. The micro-basin with agriculture showed less regularization of water flux due to the physical characteristics of the local soils.