Mapeamento da vulnerabilidade ambiental em Timon (MA)

Abstract

The intense population growth leads to urban expansion, generating pressure on the environment and causing imbalance in environmental systems. Thus, this research sought to identify the environmental vulnerability of Timon considering the grouping of environmental information. The relevance of the research is to group this information and connect them, enabling the integrated environmental analysis of the municipality. Therefore, the general objective of this research was to perform the geoenvironmental analysis of Timon and evaluate his environmental vulnerability; while, the specific objectives were: to characterize and map the geoenvironmental aspects, apply an adaptation of the methodology proposed by Crepani et al. (2001); produce the map of environmental vulnerability, and analyze the results obtained. The research was based on the geosystemic approach and environmental vulnerability; the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) proved to be necessary, being essentially the application of geoprocessing techniques. The indicators used were: lithology (geology), slope (geomorphology), erodibility (soils), SAVI (vegetation) and erosivity (climate); the choice of these indicators was due to the need to adapt the widely used methodology of Crepani et al. (2001) indicators sought to follow the same methodological proposal, the format of the data used were tabular, shapefile and raster, each data was treated and finally had a thematic map of each indicator, these maps were used in the proposed mathematical formulation, thus, came to the map of environmental vulnerability in Timon. The vulnerability to lithology was shown to be mostly low, as there is a large number of rocks with low cohesion in the municipality; in relation to vulnerability in terms of slope, a predominance of smooth, wavy and flat relief was observed; vulnerability to erosivity was high and very high; with regard to vulnerability to erodibility, it was identified that the soils have medium to good drainage; vulnerability to SAVI generally showed moderate photosynthetic activity. Thus, the environmental vulnerability of Timon was arrived at, the classes defined namely: very low, low, strong and very strong. Among the indicators used, it was possible to observe that the slope had the greatest influence on the result; therefore, this indicator should be studied more deeply. The bases of the research proved to be of great importance for the continuation of the study and analysis of the results. Finally, the mapping carried out showed Timon's potentialities and vulnerabilities, thus promoting the debate on these issues and can serve as a subsidy for the efficient environmental management of the municipality.