Perdas de solo no Geoparque Seridó em função das alterações no uso e cobertura da terra

Abstract

The present work had the general objective of carrying out an analysis of soil losses in the Seridó Geopark, considering the changes that occurred in its land use and land cover, considering two different periods: 1984 and 2019. For that purpose, two maps of land use and land cover were obtained. One for the year 1984 and the other for the year 2019, from free images from orbital sensors. Soil loss estimates were performed using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), coupled to the Geographic Information System (GIS), which considered for its modeling, in addition to information on land use and cover, precipitation, soil and topography data, thus allowing the estimation and spatial analysis of the distribution of soil losses in the territory of the Seridó Geopark. In which it was found that the Seridó Geopark underwent a considerable change in its use and land cover, with a decrease of about 9.29% of areas of native vegetation and an increase of about 8.33% of the area of agriculture, also there has been a considerable increase in urban areas. With regard to soil losses, for the year 1984 average soil losses of 1.01 t.ha-1.year-1 were estimated, considered very low, and for the year 2019 average losses of 8,53 t.ha-1.year-1, classified as low. The factors that most influenced soil losses were topography and land use and cover, with mining being identified as the type of use and cover with the greatest potential for soil loss. On the other hand, the native vegetation classes showed the lowest rates of soil loss, thus demonstrating the efficiency of the vegetation cover in protecting the soil and the need for its protection and revitalization in areas of degradation.