Managing water resources in complex tropical basins: tailored SWAT ecohydrological modeling to the Rio das Velhas, Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hydrological modeling in decision-making is particularly challenging in tropical countries such as Brazil. There are numerous modeling tools; however, many applications have focused on watersheds with a total area of 0.6 in all sub-basins on a monthly basis. We also explored how four contrasting land use scenarios affected four water-flow variables (surface runoff, base flow, percolation, and total streamflow). Our results show that by using multiple flow-monitoring stations and multisite calibration approaches, ecohydrological models can be useful for managing basin-extent water resources in countries of continental dimensions such as Brazil.

Keywords

• Water resources management
• Water governance
• GIS spatial tools
• Rio das Velhas