Comparative analysis of the water balance in the municipalities of Porto Seguro (Bahia) and Viçosa (Minas Gerais)

Abstract

Water balance is a way of monitoring water storage in the soil, computing what goes in and out and helping to understand the processes involved in the hydrological cycle. This procedure uses the method proposed by THORNTHWAITE & MATHER (1955). Where the maximum capacity of available water in the soil was set at 100 mm. The temperature and precipitation values correspond to the historical averages for the period of 2018 in the municipalities of Porto Seguro (BA) and Viçosa (MG), obtained by conventional meteorological stations (EMC’s), from the network of stations of the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET). The work proposes to relate the water balance with the regional characteristics of the mentioned cities, and their average values of temperature and precipitation. The average annual temperatures vary from 23.5 °C and 20.2 °C for Porto Seguro and Viçosa, respectively. The total annual precipitation varies approximately from 1364 mm to 1638 mm for the evaluated stations. Both locations showed a greater deficiency of the monthly water balance between August and October, obtaining this relationship with the low temperatures that this period obtained. The influence of local characteristics such as altitude, latitude and longitude on climatic patterns is also observed.