The aim of this work is to analyze the spatial correlation among pair of maps related to submerged macrophytes growth in Taquaruçu reservoir, between São Paulo and Paraná states. The study of submerged vegetation is mainly important due to its excessive proliferation, which causes ecological unbalance and economical losses to hydroelectric power plants. Three survey fields were carried out between March and April of 2010, in order to map the submerged canopy height and depth, with the hydro-acoustic technique. With these data, other spatial variables related to macrophytes growth were derived: slope, water column height, margin distance, thalweg distance, colonized neighborhood cells count and colonized neighborhood height sum. The correlation analysis was divided in two sets of pairs of maps. One set was formed by morphometric ones and the other set had the pair maps whose variables were related to vegetation, with temporal variation. The spatial correlation was evaluated using Cramers index, based on chi-square statistic, and Joint Information Uncertainty, based on entropy concept. The results showed that the most correlated variables were depth and thalweg distance. Some applications, such as modeling, require that one of the highly associated variable of the map pair is removed. In this work it is suggested that depth and thalweg distance be excluded.Pages: 4661-466
