CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION: THORNTHWAITE AND KÖPPEN FOR THE IPOJUCA RIVER WATERSHED, PE - BRAZIL

Abstract

The principles of climate classifications are rarely used in the field of agricultural and water studies, because it is considered its comprehensive scale of action. Rainfall regimes and fluctuations in air temperatures were decisive for the calculations and their spatial distribution. Thornthwaite's climatic classifications (1948,1955) made it possible to effectively separate climates in the basin area under study. Among the methods of classification of bioclimatic regions, Köppen is the most used in Brazil, due to concern only with the large divisions of vegetation and due to the lower rigidity of the formula for determining the wet or dry month. The temperature data were estimated by the software estima_T, and the precipitation data were acquired from the superintendence of the development of the Northeast and Pernambuco Water and Climate Agency. The determination of the components of the water balance allowed a greater knowledge of the climatic reality of the studied area, while offering conditions of compatibilization between the water retained in the soil and the different forms of use of it, aiming at minimizing the risks to agriculture and populations. The existence of three climatic types according to the Köppen classification and five climatic types according to the classification of Thornthwaite and Mather (1955) in the area under study. Aiming at important information for the planning and rationalization of its various productive activities and agricultural policies.