Hydropeaking of madeira hydroelectric complex: downstream impacts on land use and forest resource use of white-water river floodplain (várzeas)

• Grant number: 22/13330-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Emilio Federico Moran
• Grantee: Guilherme de Sousa Lobo
• Supervisor: Thiago Sanna Freire Silva
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais (NEPAM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Stirling, Scotland
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/07037-0 - HYDROPEAKING OF MADEIRA HYDROELECTRIC COMPLEX: DOWNSTREAM IMPACTS ON LAND USE AND FOREST RESOURCE USE OF WHITE-WATER RIVER FLOODPLAINS, BP.DR

Abstract

The Madeira River has a predictable flooding regime, with a wet and a dry season. The flooding regime is the main phenomenon that determines the ecological and biogeochemical processes of the Madeira River white-water floodplain. In addition to the biophysical processes, riverine communities possess an intimate ecological knowledge of the flooding regime, having long managed land use and forest resources of white-water floodplains in synchrony with flood seasonality. However, anthropogenic changes in the flooding regime have been recorded recently in the Madeira River; the operation of the Madeira Hydroelectric Complex significantly increases the daily flood peaks (hydropeaking), known regionally as repiquetes. As the survival and thriving of local people depends on understanding where and when resources occur in different flood seasons, an altered flooding regime such as caused by hydropeaking can be devastating. For instance, mischaracterization of the ecological zones of white-water floodplains used by residents to manage land use and extract forest resources could result from sudden changes, with unpredictable ecological consequences. In this context, the present project will investigate the impacts of hydropeaking on land use and forest resources in the white-water floodplain of Madeira River, by integrating modern remote sensing and spatial analysis methods with the local knowledge of riverine communities. (AU)