Geotechnology Applied to Confronting Land Use and Occupation in Permanent Preservation Areas

Abstract

One of the most worrying issues concerns land use and occupation conflicts within permanent preservation areas. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the evolution of land use and occupation as well as permanent preservation areas (PPAs) in Jucu River hydrographic basin (JRHB), located in Espírito Santo State - Brazil. The specific objectives were: (i) map land use and occupation in 2005 and 2018; (ii) analyze land use and occupation changes between both years; (iii) examine the contribution of each class to the total variation of classes with significant net variation; (iv) delimit PPAs for both years, in accordance with the new Brazilian forest code; and, (v) compare land use and occupation classes within each PPA. MapBiomas platform, which is based on Landsat satellite images, was used to map land use and occupation. Permanent Preservation Areas were delimited according to the criteria, definitions and parameters established by Law No. 12,651, from May 25, 2012, using ArcGIS® 10.3 computational application. From obtained results, it was possible to infer that over the analyzed period forest formation and pasture classes were the most expressive. Watercourses PPAs obtained greater participation in relation to the other categories in terms of area. However, once such category of PPA presents small amount of vegetated area, less than 50% of the corresponding area, a low degree of preservation is indicated. Concerning the confrontation of land use classes it is concluded that: Salt Flat class was extinct; part of forest formation evolved to planted forest; and, pasture presented the greatest loss of area. Forest formation, mosaic of agriculture, pasture and planted forest classes showed increase in area. It is concluded that there were specific areas of the watershed that showed a greater loss of area due to the increase in the implementation of silvicultural practices, being the area of pasture class the one that showed a greater index of variation.