Uso da terra na Área de Preservação Permanente do rio Paraíba do Sul no trecho entre Pinheiral e Barra do Piraí, RJ

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the land use in APP of Paraíba do Sul River, the stretch of 13 km between Pinheiral and Barra do Piraí municipalities, RJ, comparing the current occupation of this area with current legislation. For land use mapping satellite images provided by Google Earth 5.0 were used. The images were grouped in mosaic and georeferenced. The river was traced in shapefile format, and its APP generated through a buffer in ArcGIS 9.2. According to brazilian Forest Code, river APP's with the dimensions of the Paraiba do Sul must have a width of 100 m. However, it was found in study area only 40% of forest, and most of the APP covered by pasture (54%). The presence of vegetation in APP is very important for the sustainability of water courses. Despite the Paraíba do Sul had not provided the forest cover across the APP, the values were higher when compared to similar studies in other areas. Palavras-chave: remote sensing, image processing, riparian forest, sensoriamento remoto, processamento de imagens, matas ciliares.