Multitemporal Analysis of Land Use and Coverage in the Low Course of the Araguaia River

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze the spatial behavior of plant formations and land use in the Ecological Tension Area Amazon—Cerrado. To this end, the Araguaia river basin was selected, in its low course, because it constitutes a physical-natural limit between the two Biomms, with intense dynamics of use and land cover Thus, in addition to researching scientific references and socioeconomic data from secondary sources, a geographic database was elaborated, with georeferenced data, and spatial operations are carried out. Among them, a supervised classification of land use and coverage, with multi-temporal analysis between the years 1984, 2000 and 2018. Thus, an expansion of 4.2 ha of Forest (Amazon biome) was observed on the savanic phytophysiognomy (Cerrado). However, the suppression of forested areas reached values around 21,700 km2, with direct conversions to anthropic activities, mainly pasture, about 71%. The results of the mapping compared with the data of the agricultural census show that the landscape of the Araguaia river basin, in its low course, is dominated by areas of pasture managed. However, public policies and government investments have fomented the expansion of agriculture in the direct bank of the river Araguaia, from 2000 onwards, and that the landscape of the left bank is dominated by pasture managed. Finally, it was found that the implantation of protective areas contributed to the vegetational regeneration of both biomms.