Identification of Desertification- Sensitive Areas in the Brazilian Northeast Through Vegetation Indices

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The aim of this study was to identify areas susceptible to drought and under desertification in the Brazilian Northeast, more specifically in the states of Alagoas, Pernambuco, and Sergipe. The study was based on the 2000-2014 time period, relative frequency, Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) dataset derived from MOD13Q1 products (vegetation indices derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensor). The areas located within the desertification nucleus of Cabrobó, in the southwestern of Pernambuco and surrounding the Águas Belas municipality were considered susceptible to drought and desertification. Some municipalities in the countryside of Alagoas showed a very low relative frequency of VCI data (45-50%), and occurrence of areas between 55-60%.Tthe Sergipe state presented a relative frequency VCI data around 50% only in the Poço Verde municipality. Among the areas with low rates of VCI and the most frequently identified in this research, therefore, with greater frequency of droughts, the Southwestern and the Southern Pernambuco hinterlands were not considered as pilot areas by MMA (Brazilian Environment Ministry) in its desertification studies and were included as susceptible for desertification in this study. The results suggest the use of this methodology to subsidize formulations of public policies with application in land use and land cover studies or sustainable development and environmental risk analysis.

Desertificação: uma visão geral dos processos e conceitos, fundamentados em aplicação de índices orbitais através do sensoriamento remoto

“…Mas, ao longo dos anos, muitas situações ocorreram em diferentes regiões do mundo. Por exemplo, na década de 60, registrou-se em regiões da África, a perda da capacidade produtiva dos solos e a falta de alimentos, seguida, de fome, seca e guerra, o que culminaram em incremento do fluxo migratório na década de 70 (Aubréville, 1949;Glantz, 1977;Ferreira et al, 2017;Barros Corrêa et al, 2019) de regiões áridas e semiáridas ao Sul do deserto do Sahara, conhecida como Sahel (Glantz, 1977).…”

“…A técnica de sensoriamento remoto trata do uso de imagens orbitais como ferramenta para estudos e acompanhamento das mudanças ambientais, sendo atualmente indispensável para análise da variação espaço-temporal de problemas relacionados Research, Society and Development, v. 10, n. 11, e585101119950, 2021 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i11.19950 ao meio ambiente. Para estudos relacionados à desertificação, diferentes autores já constatam a eficiência dessa ferramenta (Salvati et al, 2011;Ferreira et al, 2017;Prăvălie et al, 2020), dado que o computo do nível de cobertura vegetal, facilmente obtido por meio do sensoriamento remoto, tem grande associação com a desertificação.…”

Aridity Indices to Assess Desertification Susceptibility: A Methodological Approach Using Gridded Climate Data

“…Currently, it is estimated that one billion people in 100 countries are affected by desertification, with 250 million in developing nations (Reynolds et al 2007). In Brazil, most of the studies on desertification focus on the Northeast region due to its semi-arid climate and high number of municipalities with high vulnerability to drought (Marengo et al 2017;Ferreira et al 2017;Tomasella et al 2018;Alves et al 2020;Vieira et al 2020). However, other regions of the country have similar climate and issues of environmental degradation, increasing the risk of desertification.…”

Propriedades das Séries Temporais de NDVI e EVI da Cobertura Vegetal em Áreas de Solos RQo Associadas a Arenização

“…A análise de áreas suscetíveis a desertificação, tem utilizado de forma frequente séries temporais para detecção de mudanças na vegetação (Higginbottom & Symeonakis, 2014;Ferreira et al, 2017;Masoudi et al, 2018).…”