Soil-landscape relationship in the watershed of the Rico stream, São Paulo State, Brazil.

The weathering of rocks and minerals of the córrego Rico Watershed processes was studied to understand the internal forces to determine the distribution of soil and relief in space. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relation present in rock formation, soil, relief and water courses in a watershed landscape. Remote sensing orbital image and geographic information system techniques were used in research to data analysis. The multispectral and hyperspectral imagers were available for mapping the land cover, water courses and to process the relief. The physical soil and mineralogy data was collected in field and the samplings were analyzed in the soil and mineralogy laboratories. The exogenic system then transforms rock-forming minerals and their constituent elements into soil showed the differences between relief and soil formation in the area. The landforms composed the watershed landscape was verified. The results showed the influence of relief on soil types and their distribution in the landscape. The areas with higher drainage density present a dissected relief. Ultisols are present in areas of higher drainage density and Latosols are present in areas of lower drainage density, showing a close relationship between relief forms and soil distribution in the landscape. The areas more susceptible to natural erosive processes – Ultisols requires sustainable management in the watershed.