Hydrological Impact of a High-Density Reservoir Network in Semiarid Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Dense reservoir networks, with thousand of small dams, can be increasingly found throughout the world, especially in water-scarce environments, such as the Brazilian northeastern region. Although the effect of individual small dams might be negligible, their joint effect has proved to be relevant on water and sediment connectivity. Literature, however, is scarce concerning the effect of such networks on water availability and/or sustainability of mesoscale or large-scale basins. This research intended both to assess the effect of the dense reservoir network of the semiarid Upper Jaguaribe Basin (UJB;