Study of circulation, water quality and land use in the Itumbiara Reservoir hydrographic basin

Abstract

The management and sustainable use of water resources relies heavily on water quality data, on how this quality is changing over time, and about the possible main causing agents. For the specific case of reservoirs, their lentic regime is an additional grievance as a potential triggering mechanism of phenomena such as eutrophication and salinization of their waters. A factor for concern related to water quality of hydrographic drainage basins is the growing agro-husbandry business with their associated pollution impacts. Besides the human factors, the hydrologic systems are also under the influence of natural forcings associated with meteorological and climatological conditions. The hydrographic basin of the Itumbiara reservoir, located in the border of the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Goiás, and responsible for the generation of 2082 MW of electric energy, has the agriculture and husbandry as its main economic activities, with a great expansion of sugar cane plantations in the last years. This project aims at contributing for a better understanding of the space/time patterns of variability of the dynamics and the water quality of this important water body at the synoptic and seasonal time scales. To reach this goal we will make use of remote sensing and numerical hydrodynamic modeling tools, climatic analysis and in situ water quality data. (AU)