The river banks of the Lower São Francisco River, which mostly present low cohesion soils, have suffered with the increase in erosion, leading to margin retreat and sedimentation. The purpose of this work was to study the application of a soil bioengineering technique in order to control the riverbank erosion by its stabilization aiming toward the riparian vegetation recovery. The experimental area was divided in two different assays, with three replications. The test assay (without the soil bioengineering technique) was installed upstream, and the assay with soil bioengineering was installed downsteam. The soil bioengineering technique was characterized by the association of the biotextile screen under the trade name Fibrax® 400BF, associated with Brachiaria decumbens grass and sediment retainers under the trade name Bermalonga®, installed along the river bank base. In order to evaluate the riverbank changes, direct topographic measures was used. The data was collected 30, 180, 360 and 540 days after the beginning of the study. At the assay without soil bioengineering protection, strong slope soil mass movement occurred. The opposite behavior occurred in the assay with soil bioengineering, with a very little soil movement.
riverbank erosion; São Francisco River; biotextile
