Flood Vulnerability, Environmental Land Use Conflicts, and Conservation of Soil and Water: A Study in the Batatais SP Municipality, Brazil
Anildo Monteiro Caldas,
Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra,
Renata Cristina Araújo Costa,
Fernando Cartaxo Rolim Neto,
Marcelo Zanata,
Roberto da Boa Viagem Parahyba,
Luis Filipe Sanches Fernandes,
Fernando António Leal Pacheco
Affiliations
Anildo Monteiro Caldas
Departamento de Tecnologia Rural, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Manuel de Medeiros, s/n-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE 52171-900, Brazil
Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra
Departamento de Engenharia Rural, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Via de Acesso Prof.Paulo Donato Castellane s/n, Jaboticabal-SP 14884-900, Brazil
Renata Cristina Araújo Costa
Departamento de Engenharia Rural, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Via de Acesso Prof.Paulo Donato Castellane s/n, Jaboticabal-SP 14884-900, Brazil
Fernando Cartaxo Rolim Neto
Departamento de Tecnologia Rural, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Rua Manuel de Medeiros, s/n-Dois Irmãos, Recife-PE 52171-900, Brazil
Marcelo Zanata
Instituto Florestal, Rua do Horto, 931, São Paulo-SP 02377-000, Brazil
Roberto da Boa Viagem Parahyba
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Solos, Unidade de Execução de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Recife, Rua Antônio Falcão, 402-Boa Viagem, Recife-PE 51020-240, Brazil
Luis Filipe Sanches Fernandes
Centro de Investigação e Tecnologias Agroambientais e Biológicas, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Ap 1013, Vila Real 5001-801, Portugal
Fernando António Leal Pacheco
Centro de Química de Vila Real, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Ap 1013, Vila Real 5001-801, Portugal
In many regions across the planet, flood events are now more frequent and intense because of climate change and improper land use, resulting in risks to the population. However, the procedures to accurately determine the areas at risk in regions influenced by inadequate land uses are still inefficient. In rural watersheds, inadequate uses occur when actual uses deviate from land capability, and are termed environmental land use conflicts. To overcome the difficulty to evaluate flood vulnerability under these settings, in this study a method was developed to delineate flood vulnerability areas in a land use conflict landscape: the Batatais municipality, located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The method and its implementation resorted to remote sensed data, geographic information systems and geo-processing. Satellite images and their processing provided data for environmental factors such as altitude, land use, slope, and soil class in the study area. The importance of each factor for flood vulnerability was evaluated through the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). According to the results, vast areas of medium to high flood vulnerability are located in agricultural lands affected by environmental land use conflicts. In these areas, amplified flood intensities, soil erosion, crop productivity loss and stream water deterioration are expected. The coverage of Batatais SP municipality by these vulnerable areas is so extensive (60%) that preventive and recovery measures were proposed in the context of a land consolidation–water management plan aiming flood control and soil and water conservation.
