MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MATHIAS ALMADA RIVER BASIN AT FOZ DO IGUAÇU, PARANÃ.

Abstract

Set up the morphometric characteristics of a river basin is vital to perform the hydrological and environmental studies. It allows us to connect its physical and natural characteristics with anthropic activities and their impacts on the environment. The Mathias Almada River Basin is located in the city of Foz do Iguaçu and it is part of the Paraná III basis on west side of Paraná State. Successive floods are registered beyond the natural boundaries of Mathias Almada river in its urban course. In order to investigate the natural tendency of floods in Mathias Almada river urban course, the morphometric characterization of the basin was done. By means of the topographic map of Foz do Iguaçu city (scale of 1:50.000), the calculations were made on the morphometric parameters related to the metric forms characteristics, drainage pattern and hydrographic hierarchy, drainage density, waterways density, sinuosity and maintenance coefficient of the channels, in addition to the landscape aspects like the declivity and hypsometry and the roughness index. Techniques of geoprocessing inside the "QGIS" software were used and also equations proposed for the morphometric factors. It was found that the basin has low natural susceptibility to floods because it nearly has a square form, a long lenght associated to the relief with weak declivity and a good drainage. In this context, the ccurrence of the floods on the river urban course is directly related to the anthropic actions of inappropriate land use.