Spatial variability of groundwater contamination risk by tebuthiuron in sugarcane area

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the groundwater contamination risk by tebuthiuron in a sugarcane area, through spatial modeling, in the municipality of Sao Manuel, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Araqua model was used to generate specific concentration estimates, considering simulations regarding different water table depths (100 and 200 cm) and irrigation depths (0 and 2,500 mm). As the estimated concentrations of tebuthiuron did not show spatial dependence, the thematic maps of risk of groundwater contamination were obtained through the method of interpolation by the inverse distance. Considering all the simulations, it can be concluded that there would be no groundwater contamination by tebuthiuron at the two depths of the water table, with or without irrigation. The interpolation of the estimated concentrations of tebuthiuron in groundwater provides the spatialization and a quick view of the areas with higher contamination risk.