Landslides in the State of Pernambuco

Abstract

Even though the occurrences of social and economic losses and fatal victims caused by landslides in Pernambuco are recurrent, one must consider that there is a gap in the systematization of information pertaining to such processes in a georeferenced spatial database at a state level, especially with regard to the location and types of triggering conditioning factors. This work is intended to evaluate the occurrence of landslides in the state of Pernambuco, the conditioning factors thereof, and the most affected areas. For such, a Geographic Database (Banco de Dados Geográfico - BDG) and an inventory map were created, based on the capture of landslides in the state between 1988 and 2019, both through secondary and primary sources. Lastly, all of the occurrences were catalogued in information plans, vectorized in a GIS (Geographic Information System) environment and correlated with thematic variables of the main conditioning factors. 3,138 landslides in Pernambuco were inventoried, which enabled the verification of behavior patterns regarding the occurrence of said processes in the state. The formation of this georeferenced spatial database may contribute to better understand the incidence of these processes, and thus subsidize the establishment of investigative methodologies and strategies related to the subject. Keywords: Inventory; Database; Mass Movements; Northeastern Brazil.