Groundwater recharge potential for sustainable water use in urban areas of the Jequitiba River basin, Brazil.

• Autor(a) principal: COSTA, A. M. da
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: SALIS, H. H. C. de, VIANA, J. H. M., PACHECO, F. A. L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/1113922
• topic: Bacia Hidrográfica; Geologia; Recurso Hídrico; Política; Uso da Terra

The zoning of groundwater recharge potential would be attractive for water managers, but is lacking in many regions around the planet, including in the Jequitiba River basin, Minas Gerais, Brazil. In this study, a physically based spatially distributed method to evaluate groundwater recharge potential at catchment scale was developed and tested in the aforementioned Jequitiba River basin. The data for the test was compiled from institutional sources and implemented in a Geographic Information System. It comprised meteorological, hydrometric, relief, land use, and soil data. The average results resembled the annual recharge calculated by a hydrograph method, which worked as validation method. The spatial variation of recharge highlighted the predominant contribution of flat areas, porous aquifers, and forested regions to groundwater recharge. They also exposedthenegativeeffectofurbanization. Incombination,thesefactorselectedthefollowingsectors of the Jequitiba River basin as regions of high recharge potential: the south-southeast part of the headwaters in Prudente de Morais; Sete Lagoas towards the central part of the basin; and the region between Funilândia and Jequitiba, near the Jequitiba river mouth. Some management practices were suggested to improve groundwater recharge. The map of groundwater recharge potential produced in this study is valuable and is therefore proposed as tool for planners in the sustainable use of groundwater and protection of recharge areas.