GRANT USAGE OF WATER RESOURCES IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AREA AT MACHADO RIVER, IN THE SOUTH OF THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

Water grant is an administrative act predicted by the Brazilian Water Resources National Policy that grants to the requester the right to water resources use according to the watershed plan guidelines ensuring the water multiples uses. The Environmental Protection Area of Machado river watershed is located in the southern of Minas Gerais State, and it has an intense land use diversity, demanded water for multiple productive process. This paper aims to evaluate the water permits granted by Minas Gerais Water Management Institute to the Environmental Protection Area of Machado river from 2002 to 2018. For this research was used cartographic data obtained in the scale 1:50,000, data of Minas Gerais State Forestry Institute, as well as the water permits database from Minas Gerais Water Management Institute. The treatments of spatial and non-spatial data were performed using geographical information system, electronic sheets and R statistical packages applications. Results show there is an increase in grant concessions in the study area in 2014, and the higher density of water permits is located at the middle and lower Machado river watershed due to the use by irrigated agriculture, which uses 70.8% of the consumed flows.