Abstract

SOUZA, Jonas Otaviano Praça de; BARROS, Ana Clara Magalhães de  and  CORREA, Antonio Carlos de Barros. Fluvial styles in a semi-arid fluvial system: Riacho do Saco watershed, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil . Finisterra [online]. 2016, n.102, pp.3-23. ISSN 0430-5027.  https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis3737.

The growth of environmental awareness has fostered the need for the adoption of public policies for the management of water resources. The understanding of the characteristics and behavior of fluvial environments is essential for an adequate management, especially in the prevailing unstable contexts of the drylands. According to these premises, this work aimed to identify and describe the fluvial styles of the Riacho do Saco watershed, within semi-arid Northeastern Brazil, as well as analyzing the behavior of each fluvial style individually. For this purpose, ASTER GDEM and QUICKBIRD imagery as well as field data were used in order to identify the elements and characteristics of the fluvial styles. Within the studied watershed, four landscape units were devised: headwaters zone, flood prone area, fault line escarpment and pediment. The traits of these units, coupled with human induced impacts, exert control upon the fluvial styles. In the study area seven fluvial styles were devised, such as: gully channels in the headwaters zone on Quaternary colluvium infills, cut-and-fill channels on flood prone areas, incised channels in the fault line escarpment and rocky bottom channel with discontinuous floodplains on the pediment. Based on the identification and characterization of these fluvial styles, the choice of adequate water resource management policies becomes more effective

Keywords : fluvial styles; fluvial classification; semi-arid environment; Saco Creek watershed.

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