Implicações da relação solo versus relevo na instalação e evolução de túneis

Abstract

Whereas erosion is a process that detracts from the soil, reducing its productivity or even making impossible the food production in it, it is worth emphasizing the importance of studies on this topic, especially with explanations and solutions to problems found in areas that are degraded by erosive processes. The installation and evolution of this process depends on a number of factors, all of them related to the pedological cover and the shapes of slopes, such as those linked to the hydrology of the hillside. With emphasis on this type of erosion phenomenon, this work takes as its main objective to recognize the factors correlated with onset and progression of tunnels, particularly those concerning the characteristics of soils and landforms in a hillside of Rio das Pombas, in the city of Guarapuava, South Center of the Paraná State. To this end, the research was developed from a comprehensive pedological system approach, identifying and individualizing the units of soil through surveys, and also monitoring the rainfall and hydrological flows in order to observe the dynamics of subsurface water in that slope. The methodology used in the study was divided into four phases with the first phase was consisted basically of bibliographic content to be worked, then the second part of the research was carried out on field work, and in this phase samples for laboratory analysis were collected; the piezometers for monitoring of subsurface flows were installed and it was also installed the weather station to the collections related to rainfall. In the third phase, the work was focused on laboratory and office, where were then carried out the sizing analysis and also the preparation of cartographic material combined with the tabulation of data for the construction of graphs. The fourth and final phase was the analysis of integrated data, from which, through the analysis the results were achieved. In the case studied, the results indicated that the main factors of installation and maintenance of erosion of those tunnels were that related to the physical properties of pedologic cover, such as the particle size, the shape of the slope and mainly the hydrological conditions. Regarding the evolution of the erosion on that slope, it can be said that the tunnels in the future may finally become a crater, damaging the use of the area.