DRAINAGE DYNAMICS IN CAATINGA SOILS

Agricultural drainage is a practice that allows the incorporation of poorly drained areas to the productive process and avoids problems of waterlogging and salinization of soils. Knowledge of the variability of the physical and hydrodynamic attributes of the soil assists in decision making and the appropriate use of water and soil. The objective of this research was to evaluate the physical, hydrodynamic and salinity parameters of the soil, as well as to identify the possible need for soil drainage in two cultivated areas. For this, two experiments were carried out under field conditions, in the municipalities of Santa Luzia - PB and São José dos Cordeiros - PB. The saturated hydraulic conductivity (K0) was determined by the inverse Auger Hole method (Porchet), the laboratory analyses of physical parameters and soil salinity were performed using deformed samples collected at 0-30; 30-60; 60-90 and 90-120 cm depths, besides the installation of a network of level observation wells. The investigated properties were analyzed using classical statistics measures, histograms and correlation analysis (R² and r).