Quantification of Geodiversity Services in the São Francisco River Basin, Brazil (Minas Gerais portion), and Their Importance for the Management of Water Resources

Abstract

The São Francisco River basin (SFRB) is the largest hydrographic basin located exclusively in Brazil. It covers an area of 636,920 km2, encompassing seven states. From its source, in the Serra da Canastra National Park in the state of Minas Gerais, the river flows for about 2700 km to its mouth, on the border of the states of Sergipe and Alagoas. It passes through regions rich in natural and cultural resources that are considered strategic for its development. Its management has been a challenge for the different agencies involved in the environmental sector. Thus, the objective of this study is to quantitatively map the geodiversity services, in addition to showing areas of density of these services, in the São Francisco River basin in Minas Gerais using planning units denominated Hydrographic Circumscriptions (CHs), proposed by the Instituto Mineiro de Gestão das Águas (Minas Gerais Institute for Water Management) (IGAM) as reference. The methods employed were quantification and spatialization of geodiversity services by CHs and comparison between them. The results indicate that the integrated assessment of geodiversity services proved to be satisfactory, enabling the identification of the most prominent services in each CH, in addition to making it possible to innovatively support the management of water resources in Brazil.