Relações entre geologia, pedologia e paisagem como base para potencialidades e análises geoespaciais da recarga de aquíferos na região sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Assessing the spatial variability of attributes governing groundwater recharge processes is crucial for more sustainable water management and guiding policies related to ecosystem service payments. Thus, we aimed to investigate soil-landscape relationships regarding their potential for aquifer recharge through empirical scoring based on expert knowledge in the Southern region of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Geospatial clustering analyses were applied to ensure confidence in interpretations and to identify assertive patterns of soil variability. considerations were made regarding annual rainfall, current land use, and occupation, which present higher contemporary temporal variability. Areas not favorable to aquifer recharge comprised 13,2% of the region, slightly favorable at 33,3%, favorable at 4,5%, and very favorable at only 4%. Two extreme hydropedological scenarios were found: a) hot spots consisting of areas with higher aquifers recharge potentiality across gentle reliefs, deep soils over volcanic or sedimentary rocks, adequately coinciding with food production areas; and b) cold spots consisting of areas with low aquifers recharge, across steep reliefs, shallow and less permeable soils over crystalline rocks, where maintaining native vegetation is essential for water production.