Management and monitoring of water resources in areas of eucalyptus plantations

Abstract

The eucalyptus planting in Brazil is done in large areas, and an important agricultural product. For the assessment of possible impacts arising from the exploratory activity, analysis is needed of the effects on water, soil, air and biodiversity. This work aimed to the monitoring of water resources in the Baixo Jacuí Basin, in southern Brazil, to evaluate the possible impacts of changes of land use, providing information on water resources for expansion of companies forests, given the conditions of environmental licenses, certification and forest science. For the monitoring of water resources were chosen three representative micro basins (Sanga das Pedras, Colorado and São Vicente). The estimated flow was performed twice, from February 2007 to January 2008. In evaluating the possible impacts of changes of land use on water resources were used indexes, which were the seasonality index (SI), water availability index (ID) and rate of flow generation (IE). The SI presents between microbasins analyzed quite values contrasting , showing that in some areas of the basin, there is contrasts in monthly average flow values between wet and dry months ( SI <5%), on the other hand other areas have average monthly flows more stable during the year (SI> 30%).