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Urban soil gully erosion in São Luís, Brazil, has resulted in loss of lives and properties. Environmental conditions (soil properties/use, rain regime, slope characteristics) associated with deforestation, brought on by irregular, unplanned and unauthorized urban settlement expansion (without basic urban infrastructure, especially sanitation, rain pipes and paved roads), has promoted land degradation and initiated gully formation. Therefore, understanding the factors that generate erosive processes, as well as the application of control measures and prevention, are fundamental actions for public safety. A novel control approach is the application of palm-mat geotextiles. These offer considerable potential to contribute to soil conservation, through sustainable and environmentally friendly palm agriculture. Ongoing field and laboratory research, in Europe, South America, Africa and SE Asia, is investigating geotextile mats manufactured from palm-leaves to evaluate their long-term effectiveness in controlling soil erosion and to assess their sustainability and economic viability. Palm-leaf geotextiles are novel and offer new bioengineering solutions to environmental problems, as temporary application of geotextiles allows sufficient time for plant communities to stabilize engineered slopes. Initial investigations suggest palm geotextiles are an effective, cheap and economically-viable soil conservation method, with tremendous potential. Palm geotextiles offer enormous multi-faceted environmental and socio-economic benefits, which include environmental education and local community involvement in reclamation and environmentalimprovement programmes that reduce local community health risks.

Integrative approaches to land and water management apply scientifi cally informed policies that build upon a landscape template. The River Styles Framework supports the development and application of proactive, strategic and cost-eff ective management plans. This paper outlines eight key principles that build upon the River Styles Framework: (1) use a landscape template as an integrative platform; (2) respect the inherent diversity of river forms and processes; (3) work with variability, adjustment and change; (4) know your catchment, understanding patterns of river types and tributary-trunk stream relationships; (5) compare like with like in assessing geomorphic river condition; (6) forecast prospective river futures to set moving targets for management; (7) apply a conservation-fi rst and recovery enhancement ethos in the development of visionary yet realistically Informações sobre o Artigo Recebido (

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ResumoO trabalho foi desenvolvido no rio Macaé, norte do estado do Rio de Janeiro, com o objetivo de analisar uma série de levantamentos das profundidades do canal realizados em seções transversais. Foram implantadas seis seções transversais no rio Macaé antes e após as confl uências com seus tributários rios Sana, D'Antas e São Pedro no médio/ superior, médio/baixo e baixo curso, e avaliados a partir da aplicação de parâmetros estatísticos propostos por Olson-Rutz & Marlow (1992) na análise das mudanças de área e forma das seções transversais. As medidas foram realizadas entre os meses de Outubro de 2007 e Março de 2012. Em todas as seções transversais, a morfologia do canal variou de acordo com os períodos de maior ou menor concentração de chuvas na região. Os valores dos percentuais, líquidos e absolutos, das áreas das seções transversais foram positivos indicando predominância de processos fl uviais de deposição no canal e os valores foram muito semelhantes entre as seções de anteriores e posteriores a cada confl uência, com exceção da confl uência com o rio São Pedro, onde as variações foram diferentes e mais acentuadas. Em todas as seções transversais, os valores de coefi ciente Gini, usado para avaliar a forma do canal, foram mais próximos de 0 (zero) indicando que a forma do canal Macaé tende a ser mais plano ou raso e mais amplo, com exceção da seção transversal localizada mais à montante do rio Macaé. Dessa forma, a avaliação das mudanças morfológicas do rio Macaé, para o período de monitoramento, apresentou comportamento e tendência dos processos fl uviais predominante de deposição para as seis seções transversais analisadas. AbstractThis work was developed in the Macaé channel, north of the Rio de Janeiro state, with the aim of analyzing the data from consecutive surveys of channel depths made in cross sections. Six cross sections were implanted in Macaé channel before and after the confl uence with the Sana, D'Antas and São Pedro Rivers in the medium/high, medium/ low and downstream, respectively, and applied statistical parameters proposed by Olson- Revista Brasileira de Geomorfologia