COMPARISON OF THREE MODELS TO PREDICT ANNUAL SEDIMENT YIELD IN CARONI RIVER BASIN, VENEZUELA

Ano: 2007 | Volume: 1 | Número: 1

Autores: Edilberto Guevara-Pérez, Adriana M. Márquez

Palavras-chave: sediment yield, soil erosion, soil loss, modeling of sediment yield

Resumo Inglês:

Caroní River Basin is located in the south-eastern part of Venezuela; with an area of 92.000 km², 40% of which belongs to the main affluent, the Paragua River. Caroní basin is the source of 66% of energy of the country. About 85% of the hydro electrical energy is generated in Guri reservoir located in the lower part of the watershed. To take provisions to avoid the reservoir silting it is very important the study of sediment yield of the basin. In this paper result of three empirical sediment yield models: Langbein-Schumm, Universal Soil Loss Equation-USLE and Poesen, are compared with observed data from five sub basins with records of twenty to thirty years. Men values of sediment yield for low, middle and upper Caroní are of 27, 76, 17 t/km²-year, respectively; and 46 and 78 t/km²-year for low and upper Paragua sub basins are. Standard errors of estimates vary between 13 and 29 for Langbein-Schumm model; between 8 and 32 for USLE procedure; and between 9 and 79, for Poesen model. Sediment yield predictions by Langbein-Schumm model seem to the best in Caroní basin.