Zoneamento de potencialidades hídricas e pressões aos hidrossistemas da bacia hidrográfica do ribeirão Serra Azul, Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Diagnosing and monitoring the demand-availability balance, inseparable elements in recognizing the parameters for water security, is fundamental to recognizing the conditions imposed on water resources, especially regarding water supply and a distribution system. It deals with the integrated understanding of water systems and the conditioning or cooperative variables that allow circulation, storage and access to water, such as reservation, in river basins. This research aimed to estimate and zone water potential, as areas favorable to the occurrence of groundwater in the hydrographic basin in which the supply system of the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (RMBH) operates, called the Ribeirão Serra Azul basin, in the context of the medium Paraopeba River, in Central Brazil. In addition to the theoretical outline, a set of procedures designed for applicability in geoprocessing was undertaken. The proposed method envisioned variables in the physical environment as capable of configuring the estimated response to this potential: configurations of the geologicalgeomorphological organization and local soils. This result was then superimposed on the density of users and volumes of water demand (in m³/s), as well as the calculation of the Surface Water Demand Index (IDHS; FEAM and Seapa, 2020) – this last in order to check pressured surface watercourses, using flow regionalization as a parameter (Q7.10). The results showed that this form of estimation can function as a first approximation to the understanding between the surface-underground compartments, with there being coherence between the characteristics that favor the infiltration of water into the soil and passage to the rock structures that constituted them. Given complex aspects not considered, such as boundary conditions of the hydrogeological basin, some areas suggested underestimation of potential values for the availability of water in quantity, especially in the basement to the west of the basin. Despite these uncertainties, which require more accurate measurements, it was important for the territory and identification of current demand pressures.