Aplicação do modelo hidrológico MGB-IPH na bacia hidrográfica do rio Seridó

Abstract

The hydrological distributed model MGB – IPH, an acronym from the Portuguese for Large Basins Model and Institute of Hydraulic Research, has been applied on diverse South American basins, mainly on perennial rivers. This study assessed the performance of the MGB-IPH to simulate the transformation of rainfall in river flow at an intermittent river basin denominated Seridó. The Seridó river basin is localized in the semi-arid Northeast region of Brazil, where heavily suffer from water shortage and it has elevated inter-annual variability of precipitations. The model was executed from 1990 to 2000. The results of the MGB-IPH calibration showed that the model was successful in simulating the seasonality of the basin and the contrast between dry and rainy years. However, when comparing the calculated and observed permanence curves and hydrographs, it was observed that the model calculated super or sub estimated river flows. The reason for that difference of river flows is probably due to the presence of many dams in the basin, that are not predicted by the model. Therefore, it was concluded that the MGB-IPH model was not able to satisfactorily represent the flow regime of the Seridó river basin.