Hydrological and erosive processes in a riparian in an urban area
Hydrology; Gallery forest; Ecosystem services; Interception; Seasonality; Hydrophobicity; Urbanization.
Riparian forests are important in the context of the landscape-water relationship, especially when these environments are pressured by processes such as urbanization, which creates impervious areas along the slope. Therefore, there is a need to investigate precipitation behavior in riparian forests and the behavior of water flowing from the urban area to the riparian forest. Therefore, the main objective of the thesis was to characterize the ecohydrological and erosive processes in a riparian forest adjacent to an urban area. To this end, the specific objectives were (i) to characterize rainfall partitioning and water table level in a tropical riparian forest located in the Brazilian savanna domains (Cerrado); (ii) to compare soil water repellency and infiltration capacity in two seasons (rainy and dry) in a riparian forest and; (iii) to understand the effectiveness of the riparian forest in protecting the water body when they receive surface runoff from the urban area. The results indicated that (i) the assessed rainfall partitioning and groundwater level had the following values: precipitation, internal precipitation, and canopy interception were 1685 mm, 1440 mm (85.5%), and 245 mm (14.5%), respectively, and the average groundwater level was 33.4 cm. (ii) In the wet season, soil water repellency is almost non-existent, whereas in the dry season water repellency is predominant. Thus, the infiltration capacity is higher in the wet period and lower in the dry period. (iii) Areas that receive runoff from the urban area are subject to a higher frequency of surface runoff compared to those that do not receive it. Rainfall events that exceed 25.1 mm cause hydrological connectivity (urbanized area-river). Under these conditions, the riparian forest cannot buffer runoff from the urban area. Thus, the hydrological processes evaluated in the riparian forest traveled in two directions – vertical and horizontal. In the first direction, the precipitation reaches the riparian forest canopy until it reaches the water table. In the second, the precipitation that falls on the urban area reaches the riparian forest through surface runoff and, in most cases, reaches the stream generating soil erosion. These results indicate that riparian forests are subject to high pressure from the urbanization process.