Groundwater in water scarcity context in the São Francisco River Basin (MG)

Abstract

Abstract In the last decade, water scarcity in Minas Gerais affected surface water availability, leading users to privilege the use of groundwater as an alternative source. The São Francisco River basin is one of the most important watersheds of the state, both for its spatial occurrence and for the preponderance of groundwater use. Due to water scarcity resulting from extreme drought events between 2009 and 2018, there was an increasing requirement trend for the licensing of groundwater abstractions. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the correlation between the increase in these requirements and periods of negative rainfall anomalies in relation to critical situations of water scarcity, defined by the State’s Normative Deliberation CERH/MG 49/2015. A direct relationship between negative rainfall anomalies and water scarcity and the increased need for groundwater use was observed, especially in the years between 2014 and 2018.

Keywords

• Water scarcity
• drought
• groundwater
• water management
• hydrology