Hydrological simulation in a watershed with predominance of Oxisol in the Upper Grande river region, MG - Brazil

Hydrological simulation has been considered an important tool applied to support water resources management in watersheds. The studied watershed is located in the Upper Grande river region in southern Minas Gerais State, draining an area of 32 km(2) towards the Camargos Hydroelectric Power Plant Reservoir (UHE - Camargos/CEMIG). In this context, this study aimed to calibrate and validate the SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for assessing quantitatively the stream flow in the Jaguara Creek Watershed (JCW). For that, SWAT model requires land-use and soil maps and digital elevation model, besides historical series related to meteorological and hydrological data sets. January 1, 2006 to August 31, 2009 was the period used for the above-mentioned historical series. The performance of SWAT was measured through NashSutcliffe coefficient (CNS) which was 0.66 and 0.87 for calibration and validation, respectively. Comparing CNS results found in this study to the ones established in a SWAT model performance classification, it was found that such model can be used to evaluate the hydrological behavior in the JCW, which is a watershed representative of the Oxisol in the Upper Grande river region in southern Minas Gerais State.