Índice de erosividade EI30 para os câmpus da Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido no período de 2005-2016

Abstract

Precipitation in a given region can cause the loss of soil mass and its physical and chemical properties. This factor, called water erosion, mainly aggravates soils, plantations and groundwater, and thus agriculture is extremely harmful. The environmental impacts are vast, from damage to crops to the formation of craters in the earth due to erosion. In order to determine the erosion factors, a universal soil loss equation (EUPS) was created, which assists in the prediction and control of soil losses, as it is used to calculate EI30, which is the erosivity index for rainfall of 30 minutes long. In this study, the EI30, monthly, average monthly and annual average were calculated for the cities where the 4 campuses of the Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, UFERSA, are located, being the cities of Angicos, Caraúbas, Mossoró and Pau dos Ferros, im the state of Rio Grande do Norte. With the use of spreadsheets that have the daily rainfall data of each of these cities, in the period 2005-2016, it was possible to obtain tables with the respective values and the creation of graphs that improve the understanding and the comparison of the results. All this procedure had the purpose of determining the annual erosivity indices and the period of return and their probability of occurrence. The highest value of the annual average index EI30 obtained was for the city of Pau dos Ferros, while the smallest was for the city of Mossoró.