In Brazil, Distrito Federal region is characterized by the presence of streamlets and small rivers, which explains the importance of the discharge characterization in watersheds. This study used 13 years of hydrological data of the Capetinga watershed to analyze: the stationarity of hydrological parameters; the statistical distributions that best represent the discharge; the comparison of using short and medium series to calculate discharge; and the requirement for water rights concession according to the current legislation. The Lognormal 3 and Pearson 3 distributions best represented the maximum discharge, while Logpearson 3 distribution was best indicated for minimum discharge. Total annual precipitation, long duration mean discharge and seven-day minimum flow presented stationary series, but maximum instantaneous discharge did not. The use of short series to calculate discharge in this watershed was not reasonable, since it resulted in overestimation of the minimum discharge and underestimation of the maximum discharge. According to the legislation, the water capturing from the stream Capetinga requires a concession from the regulatory agency, in spite of the distributions minimum discharge has a small value, which reflects its low potential of use.
probability; stationarity; water use
