Éverton Blainski,Luis Hamilton Pospissil Garbossa,IRIA SARTOR ARAUJO, Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina, Centro de Informações de Recursos Ambientais e Hidrometeorologia de Santa Catarina, evertonblainski@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of water resources in the world. It is estimated that this water use corresponds to 70% of global water consumption. In Brazil, only 10.7% of the potential irrigated cropland is currently in use and it may represent a significant increase in water consumption if a larger share of irrigated land is implemented. Therefore, it is very important to develop tools for water management in irrigated systems. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of SWAT hydrologic model for the study of agricultural scenarios and possible changes in water availability caused by the introduction of irrigated crops. The results showed that irrigated rice cultivation promotes significant changes in the hydrological regime in the basin, especially regarding daily extremes. The most significant impacts, however, were for the minimum simulated flow (Qsim) which was below the minimum observed flow in 95% of the time (Q95). This results point out that irrigated rice may cause major environmental impacts, especially in drought periods.
Keywords: irrigated agriculture; SWAT; environmental impacts.