The  Tietê river is the most traditional course of water of the São Paulo State, crossing either the capital or all the State, from Serra do Mar counterforts up to Paraná river, the far west state.

    It borns at the Salesópolis county, at Serra do Mar counterforts and  1.120m above the sea  level. Although having its origin at 22Km form the ocean, runs more than 3,7mil Km before reaching the river Prata estuary,  through Paraná river.

    Due to the reversion works, the waters are deviated directly to the sea, generating power at Cubatão plants. The Tietê river has its mouth at Alto do Paraná, upriver of Urubupungá, flooded by the Jupiá dam, which also flows away the Tietê river at its last kilometers of route, at the level of 220 m.

    The total length of the river is of 1,15 Km and its level between the mouth and the margins is  not more than 860m with a global medium declivity of 74cm/Km. The different levels of its route has been utilized for constructing several dams for power energy . The declividade of the Tietê river bed is unstable, in accordance with the characteristics of the crossed lands. In the first route, at Serra do Mar, it is very accentuated, being slightly reduced  when the river  reaches the uplands of São Paulo; just considering the the upriver route of São Paulo capital, up to its mouth, the medium declivity drop to 50cm/Km; at the waterfall routes among the end of the canalization of the river, from São Paulo county  to  Itu waterfall , in a course of about 80Km, the declivity increases reaching again almost 200cm/Km . From there onwards, the medium declivity drops to 30cm/Km.

Tietê river is divided in four routes:

Alto Tietê

    From the water-spring of Pirapora do Bom Jesus city, with almost 250Km of extension and 350m of different levels.

    Alto Tietê runs in  an  area with great populition, having its natural conditions intensely modified by the humans; at upriver route, runs in free flowing, with widths and reduced depths and high sinuosities. In the Mogí county,has already considerable width and depths which overcome , at the dryness period, more than 1,5m. At the metropolitan region of São Paulo, the river has an artificial bed, in an extension of 26Km, in a channel with 45m width , width this increased for 56m after the Tamanduateí river fork ; the normal depth of the channel is of 5,7m.

    Upriver of the capital, in a small extension, the  Tietê river runs in a  free waterway, with irregular bed. After that the water route is flooded by two dams, provided the one of amount, of bombeamento station that inverts the sense of escoamento of the waters for the channel of the river Pine trees, through where it is deviated almost all of the natural reflux.

Superior Medium Tietê 
    From Bom Jesus' city to Pirapora to the city of Laras, where it reaches the immobility of the dam of  Barra Bonita, it has 260Km of extension and 218m of difference. It also embraces well two subplaces differentiated: the one of amount that is going from the barragem of Pirapora to the Jump of Itu, in that the little the remaining waters after the bombeamento for the reversion of Cubatão go down abruptly about 150m in 80Km of course; the river encachoeirado runs, between throats and deep margins, that in some points form true canions.
    In the space with many waterfalls, between Pirapora and Itu, as the reflux is not more than 1m3/s reduced in estiagem the, the depths are extremely low: the bed is rocky, existing numerous jumps of small height of free fall. The medium declividade in these 80Km surpasses 2m/Km. There is, in the space, small barragens for production of energy, consumed by matters in the place.
    In the following subtrecho, the river runs smoothly between high hills and numerous curves, without obstacles of larger proportions besides several rapidses. The medium depth in the space between Jump of Itu and Laras is of the order of 2m, in normal dryness, dropping in some pull, the less than 1,0m. The widths in this same pull are understood between 70 and 150m. The bed is very sinuous, with 4 or 5 great intrigues of strong curvatures.
    The medium declividade of Medium Tietê Superior is of 87cm/Km, being reduced for 20cm/Km, between the Jump of Itu and Laras. The basin that this space drena is of 9.920Km2, being located in the same, some important cities like Jundiaí and Sorocaba.

Inferior Medium Tietê 
    From the city of Laras to the rapids of Flagstone. It meets practically all channeled, for a series of barragens of multiple use. When the river ran freely, it was crossed by numerous rapidses originated by the crossing of several basaltic dashs, not having, even so, any great fall in the space.
    The width of Medium Tietê, oscillated then around 150m and its medium depths in estiagens it was of the order of 2m, except in the rocky dashs, where they lowered, for times in long pull, the less than 0,5m; the medium declividade of the river, between the city of Laras and the flagstone rapids was of about 23,5cm/Km, low plenty value, above all being considered the referred existence of the fast ones.
    The area drenada for Medium Tietê and of 42.277Km2, having in its basin numerous important cities, among the ones which: American, Araraquara, Bauru, Botucatu, Campinas, Jaú, Limeira, Lins Piracicaba, Rio Claro and São Carlos.
    The main tributary of Medium Tietê is the river Piracicaba, with 185Km of extension from the fork of its formadores the river Jaguari and Atibaia. In the bass river Piracicaba the widths vary of 30 to 50m and the medium depth between 1,5 and 2,0m. In its jusante pull he/she has its waters dammed by the barragem of Pretty Barra, reaching the immobility, with the full reservoir, the bridge of SP-191 o'clock in Santa Maria of the Mountain, the about 60Km of the mouth.

Low Tietê
    From the rapids of Flagstone to the mouth in the river Paraná, with 240km of extension and 98m difference.
    It presents weak sinuosidade, considerable widths, that empty space of 150m the more than 300m. It is cut by two great waterfalls: jump of Avanhandava, with 19m of fall, in the Km 210 and the jump of Itapura, close the outlet and drowned by the barragem of Jupiá, in the river Paraná. The medium declividade of the space is of 42cm/Km, and to the jusante of the jump Avanhandava lowers the less than 23cm/Km.
    The Low Tietê drena an area of 13.646Km, in its taxpaying basin there is just a city of larger importance: Andradina.
    The river Tietê is now navigable in the space of the immobility of the barragem of Jupiá (40Km) and in the space among the barragem of New Avanhandava and of the immobility of the barragem of Pretty Barra, already forming a continuous pull of 443Km of extension in use.
    The hidrovia Tietê-Paraná offers technical conditions of sailing comparable to the international hidrovias. The gabaritos adopted in the works and sailing channels are similar or, even in some cases, more favorable than the one of foreign hidrovias that already present intense traffic. It is the case, for example, of High Sena, in France, that moves 16 million t/ano or the river Escaut in Belgium, whose transport reaches 8 million t/ano. The channel of the north, in France, interligando the basin of Sena with the areas of Lille and Dunquerque, ended in the end of the decade of 60, has eclusas with just 6,0m of width and 90,0m of length, just 30% of the area of the eclusas of the river Tietê.
    The works of canalization of the rivers Tietê and Paraná were, in most, accomplished without forecast of immediate use of the hidrovia.
Studies checked that the convoys of it pushes, system servant for the North Americans, they offer economic advantages. Of there the need to adapt the eclusas of the river Tietê, projected in the decade of 50 in agreement with the European sailing, where isolated embarkations are used.
It convoy-pushes them they demand some private requirements as construction of walls guides retilíneos aligned with the walls of line of the eclusas, certain free height on the level of water and rays of curvature of the compatible sailing channel with its length.
    For the river Tietê, where the sailing is being implanted, the ideal will be to prepare the road for the system of convoys as it already comes being done in High Paraná. For that reason it was adopted as embarkation-type, a convoy of it pushes with compatible maximum dimensions with the one of the cameras of the concluded locks.