Potencial das árvores urbanas na regulação hídrica em ruas da cidade do Recife – PE

Abstract

Urban trees have the ability to intercept rainwater through their leaves, surface branches and logs, slowing down the peak flow and reducing runoff. Given this, this study aimed to estimate the potential of water regulation of urban trees in the neighborhood of Graças in Recife - PE with the help of the i-Tree platform to quantify the volume of intercepted water and avoided runoff by trees. A tree inventory was conducted in 4 streets of the neighborhood following the platform models and protocols. The data were entered into the i-Tree Eco v6 program, which aims to quantify and value urban tree ecosystem services. With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, the program generated reports on interception and avoided runoff at individual and species level, crown health, breast height diameter (DBH) classes, crown area, leaf area, and frequency of species. In 2016, 137 trees intercepted 1,739.8 m³ of rainwater and avoided 355.1 m³ of runoff. The most frequent species were Licania tomentosa (21.17%), Senna siamea (11.68%), Terminalia cattapa (9.49%) and Filicium decipiens (8.03%). Among the most frequent species, L. tomentosa presented the highest total interception and T. catappa presented the highest average interception value of its individuals. The same sequence occurred for the avoided runoff values. The species Lagerstroemia speciosa presented the lowest values of interception and avoided runoff. Most of the individuals of the most frequent species presented crowns in bad and critical conditions. The species L. tomentosa presented larger crown area and volume, followed by T. catappa and S. siamea. The values of interception and avoided runoff showed that they are directly related to the tree area, volume and health of the crown. The results illustrate that the platform is very useful in the study of ecosystem services provided by Brazilians’ cities urban afforestation. Despite some limitations for international projects, the platform works satisfactorily. The products generated by the i-Tree Eco v6 program can assist in the planning and management of urban trees.