Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-13T17:08:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaKRR_DISSERT.pdf: 4196464 bytes, checksum: 4f6f5f4931b1a57e1e1de151cbd47238 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-25 / Estuaries are coastal environments ephemeral life in geological time, derived from the drowning of the shoreline as a function of elevation relative sea level. Such parallel systems is characterized by having two sources of sediment, the river and the sea. The study area comprises the Acu River estuary, located on the northern coast of Rio Grande do Norte State, in a region of intense economic activity, mainly focused on the exploration of oil onshore and offshore, likely to accidental spills. In the oil sector are developed for salt production, shrimp farming, agriculture, fisheries and tourism, which by interacting with sensitive ecosystems, such as estuaries, may alter the natural conditions, thus making it an area susceptible to contamination is essential in understanding the morphodynamic variables that occur in this environment to obtain an environmental license. Information about the submarine relief the estuaries are of great importance for the planning of the activity of environmental monitoring, development and coastal systems, among others, allowing an easy management of risk areas, and assist in the creation of thematic maps of the main aspects of landscape. Morphodynamic studies were performed in this estuary in different seasonal periods in 2009 to observe and quantify morphological changes that have occurred and relate these to the hydrodynamic forcing from the river and its interaction with the tides. Thus, efforts in this area is possible to know the bottom morphology through records of good quality equipment acquired by high resolution geophysical (side-scan sonar and profiler current by doppler effect). The combination of these data enabled the identification of different forms of bed for the winter and summer that were framed in a lower flow regime and later may have been destroyed or modified forms of generating fund scheme than the number according Froude, with different characteristics due mainly to the variation of the depth and type of sedimentary material they are made, and other hydrodynamic parameters. Thus, these features background regions are printed in the channel, sandy banks and muddy plains that border the entire area / Estu?rios s?o ambientes costeiros de vida ef?mera no tempo geol?gico, derivados do afogamento da linha de costa em fun??o da eleva??o relativa do n?vel do mar. Tal sistema par?lico se caracteriza por ter duas fontes de sedimentos, a fluvial e a marinha. A ?rea em estudo compreende o Estu?rio do rio A?u, localizado no litoral setentrional do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, que se encontra em uma regi?o de intensa atividade econ?mica, principalmente voltada ?s atividades de explora??o de petr?leo onshore e offshore, pass?veis de derrames acidentais. Al?m da atividade petrol?fera s?o desenvolvidas produ??o de sal marinho, carcinicultura, agricultura, pesca e turismo, que ao interagir com ecossistemas sens?veis, como no caso dos estu?rios, podem modificar as condi??es naturais, tornando assim uma ?rea suscept?vel a contamina??es sendo essencial o entendimento das vari?veis morfodin?micas que ocorrem nesse ambiente para obten??o de licenciamento ambiental. Informa??es a respeito do relevo submarino dos estu?rios s?o de grande import?ncia para o planejamento da atividade de monitoramento ambiental, evolu??o e din?mica costeira, entre outros, possibilitando num f?cil gerenciamento de ?reas de risco, al?m de ajudar na cria??o de mapas tem?ticos dos principais aspectos da paisagem. Estudos morfodin?micos foram realizados neste estu?rio em diferentes per?odos sazonais no ano de 2009 a fim de observar e quantificar as mudan?as morfol?gicas ocorridas e correlacion?-las com as for?antes hidrodin?micas proveniente da a??o fluvial, bem como sua intera??o com as mar?s. Desta forma, os trabalhos realizados nesta ?rea possibilitaram o conhecimento da morfologia de fundo atrav?s de registros de boa qualidade adquiridos por equipamentos geof?sicos de alta resolu??o (sonar de varredura lateral e perfilador de corrente por efeito doppler). A jun??o destes dados possibilitou a identifica??o de diferentes tipos de formas de leito para o per?odo de inverno e ver?o que antes eram enquadradas em um regime de fluxo inferior e que posteriormente podem ter sido destru?das ou modificadas gerando formas de fundo de regime superior segundo o n?mero de Froude, com caracter?sticas diferenciadas devido principalmente ? varia??o da profundidade e ao tipo de material sedimentar que s?o constitu?dos, al?m de outros par?metros hidrodin?micos. Desta forma, estas fei??es de fundo est?o impressas em regi?es de canal, bancos arenosos e plan?cies lamosas que margeiam toda ?rea