Water demand and availability for livestock in the microregion of Alto Teles Pires – MT, Brazil

Abstract

The present study aimed to estimate the water demand and availability for livestock in the municipalities of the Microregion of Alto Teles Pires, Mato Grosso, Brazil. The historical series of flows obtained from the National System of Information on Water Resources (SNIRH) were used in the research. At the same time, several vector files were acquired from the continuous cartographic databases of the Brazilian Institute of Statistics and Geography (IBGE). In addition, on this site data referring to the livestock in the municipalities of the Microregion of Alto Teles Pires were obtained. To account for all species of animals and quantify the water demand in livestock in the mentioned Microregion with greater efficiency, the methodology suggested by the Paraná State Water Resources Plan (PERH) was applied. The data from the historical series of flows were analyzed with the R program, determining the reference flows Q95 of the fluviometric stations of this micro-region. In the elaboration of thematic maps, the QGIS program was used. The methodology applied in the research was adequate to evaluate the relationship between water demand and availability for livestock in the Alto Teles Pires Microregion. The water availability estimated in the micro-region was higher than the water demand required for animal watering and cleaning the facilities, meaning that livestock activities in the Micro-region did not compromise water availability, therefore, this was not a limiting factor for its development. In the geographical area studied, there was a high spatial variability in the number of animals, expressed through the EBWD unit, and it was not possible to establish a direct proportion between water availability and the area of the municipalities.