USO DE GEOTECNOLOGIAS NO DIAGNÓSTICO DA DEGRADAÇÃO DAS TERRAS DO MUNICÍPIO DE SÃO JOÃO DO CARIRI-PB

Abstract

The study area covers all the territory of the municipality of Boa Vista, located in the Microrregião Homogênia dos Cariris Velhos, semi-arid region of the State of Paraíba. The main objective of this study was to elaborate space-temporal thematic maps of the land degradation expansion in the municipality of Boa Vista for the period 1987/2004, based on TM/Landsat-5 image analysis and field work data. The Landsat images digital processing was carried on the SPRING, v.4.2. The results had shown that in the study area are presented degradation levels varying from low to the very serious. The degradation levels very low, low, moderate and serious had their occurrence diminished in 2.59%, 11.80%, 12.86% and 0.88%, respectively during the period since 1987 to 2004. In opposing way, the areas of moderate serious and very serious degradation levels had increased in the period, with increments of 20.14% and 7.65%, respectively. The process of land degradation is more present in the neighborhoods of the rural houses and along the rivers, where the humidity of the ustifluvents soils guarantees better security for dry land agriculture and for the fodder plants for feeding live stocks in dry period. In the municipality the land degradation is resultant of a lack of conservation practical in the use of agricultural soils by the farmers, of a lack of an infrastructure for mitigating the drought effects and of a lack of public polices for a sustainable life in the semi-arid region.