Rainfall variability and availability of water resources in the last 40 years in Western Bahia, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Raphael Pousa dos
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: https://locus.ufv.br//handle/123456789/29806; https://doi.org/10.47328/ufvbbt.2022.257
• topic: Hidrometeorologia - Bahia - Análise; Mudanças climáticas; Segurança hídrica; Meteorologia Aplicada

In recent decades, the increased demand for food, both nationally and internationally has driven agricultural expansion in Brazil. Biophysical, social, and economic factors have made Brazilian Cerrado one of the biomes with the greatest capacity to occupy its territory with crops. This expansion has started in the 1970s, and currently, the Brazilian Cerrado accounts for 40% of the national agricultural production. Western Bahia is one of the most active agricultural frontiers globally in this biome, with a rapid increase in agricultural and irrigated areas. This study aims to make a hydrological, climatic, and water availability analysis and the impacts that this growth can caused in the last 40 years, from 1980 to 2020. First, considering the period 1980-2015, a climate analysis showed a significant reduction in rainfall of up to 12% since the 1980s, and a reduction in river flows, both for dry and rainy seasons. Seven sub-regions in Western Bahia were identified with a potential risk of conflicts over water use. These regions experienced a 150-fold increase in the irrigated area since 1990s and 90% from 2010 to 2018. In recent years, these conflicts have become more frequent due to a combination of factors: climate variability, increased demand for water resources, and continued trends of decreasing precipitation. Second, in a complementary analysis, extending the analysis period to 2020, it was investigated how the interaction of large-scale (represented by Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation – AMO) and mesoscale (topography) processes can affect the region’s climate variability. Precipitation and river discharge data indicate a continued reduction. Precipitation has decreased by 11.5% since 1980s. The rainiest bimester, December and January (DJ), indicated a significant negative correlation with AMO (R = -0.62, α = 0.01), showing that precipitation decreases in DJ when the AMO index is positive. Within these 40 years, the five rainiest and driest DJs were selected. The rainiest ones showed that large-scale mechanisms interact with the local topography, promoting a stronger convection and high rainfall rates over the region. There is a regional suppression of convection for this driest DJ bimesters, including over the topographic gradient, shifting the convection center further west, and decreasing rainfall in Western Bahia. The climate variability in the region and the intense growth of irrigation have made the potential of conflicts over water use more frequent. Furthermore, with the continuous increase in North Atlantic temperatures, it is unlikely that the wet climatic conditions existing before the early 1990s will return. Thus, precipitation in the region will be affected, putting pressure on water availability and directly impacting economic activities dependent on climate. Keywords: Climate change. Water security. Hydroclimatic analysis.