SEDIMENT YIELD IN THE SMALL HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN: USE OF THE MATEMATIC MODELS, MARINGA RIVER BASIN, PARANA - BRASIL

The hydrographic basin of the Maringa River is located in the municipality of Maringa. The land-uses in the basin is intense and varied, occupied in part by the urban grid with intense agricultural use and fragments of natural vegetation. Because of this, there is a growing interest in understanding the erosive dynamics of the basin, promoted by natural or manmade factors. Therefore we used two geomathematical models in order to asses which one would better fi t in the reality context of the basin, in order to use it as a tool for prediction and environmental management. The application of the sediment yeld model proposed by Kirkby (1976) and the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) used in the digital environment, produced estimates of the environmental dynamics of the area. The sediment yield results showed little variation due to the soil pedological characteristics of the area. The USLE spacially demonstrated a scenario with greater variability in soil loss, including areas that exceed the maximum tolerance recommended for tropical soils.