Relações entre qualidade da água e uso e cobertura do solo em múltiplas escalas espaciais na bacia do Rio Pandeiros, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems suffer influences by anthropogenic pressures, and they can be represented by land use and cover assessment. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relations between land use and cover and water quality in a legal protected watershed: Pandeiros River, MG. Water quality assessment was done in 40 sample sites in 3-5th order streams. Trough satellite images, land use and cover was evaluated at three spatial scales: sub-basin, riparian buffer, and local (site). Our results showed that Pandeiros watershed had about 85-95% of natural vegetation at all spatial scales, and water physical and chemical variables are adequate to class 1 of Brazilian environmental law. Correlations between land use and cover class and water quality presented low coefficients at all spatial scales, perhaps due to the low variability of land use and cover results.