The São Francisco River Basin has been submitted to strong environmental impacts through changes
in the hydrologic and sedimentological regime, and also the ongoing destruction of its riparian vegetation.
The riparian vegetation has an important role on the riverbank’s protection, through the roots system and the
plant cover, improving the soil particles aggregation in a low cohesion situation, reducing the runoff and
resulting in a lower erosion rate and sedimentation of the river channel. The objective of study was to
evaluate the initial development of forest species at riverbank under soil bioengineering technique in São
Francisco River. The soil bioengineering technique was composed of longitudinal slope covered with the
biotextile (Fibrax 400 BF) and sediment retainers (Bemalonga® D40), to reduce the impact of wave water at
the slope botton, avoiding the bank undercutting, due to daily variations of water level. Before the biotextile
installation the specie,
Brachiaria decumbens
was sown to promote rapid cover vegetation. Six forest native species such as aroeira vermelha
(
Schinus terebinthifolius
Raddi.),
pau pombo (
Tapirira guianensis
Aubl.)
mulungu (
Erythrina velutina
Willd.)
tamboril (
Enterolobium contortisiliquum
(Vellozo) Morong),
canafístula (
Cassia grandis
Lf) and pau-ferro
(
Caesalpinia leiostachya
(Bentham) Ducke) were planted. The
species developments were analyzed through the Relative Growth Rate (RGR) of the shoot height and crown
diameter. After 6 (six) months, by the end of evaluations, the bigger number of live individuals was
identified in the soil bioengineering treatment. The high density and strong growth of
Brachiaria decumbens
in the area with biotextile, have contributed to the lower initial tree seedlings development.
