Environmental fragility of soils in hydrographic basin of small orders: The case of basin of Ribeirão Maringá-Pr

Abstract

The soils of the Maringa river basin have high natural fertility and are therefore heavily used for agricultural purposes. The increased agricultural production provides a greater land degradation, the destruction of its physical characteristics (compaction, reduction, infiltration, destruction of the natural structure). In recent decades, in addition to agricultural use, the basin has been suffering, as well, some impacts caused by the advance of the urbanization. Thus, the natural terrain combined with the slope, lack of vegetation and lack of appropriate conservation practices, accelerate the degradation processes. Given the above, this work with the elaboration of thematic maps (slope, soil type and land use) associated with laboratory tests for determining the index of erodibility on soil samples gave results of the areas most susceptible to the occurrence of erosion processes in Maringa river basin. From this analysis it was found that some areas both in rural and urban areas are predisposed to the occurrence of soil erosion as a result of the physical properties of soils, and its misuse