Natural and environmental vulnerability of Ponta Porã municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil

  • Thalita Beatriz Antunes Klais Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, Laboratório de Geoprocessamento para Aplicações Ambientais
  • Fabricio Bau Dalmas Instituto de Geociências da Universidade de São Paulo. Programa de Pós-graduação em Recursos Minerais e Hidrogeologia
  • Renata Porto Morais Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, Laboratório de Geoprocessamento para Aplicações Ambientais
  • Gabriela Atique Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Departamento de Botânica
  • Giancarlo Lastoria Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia
  • Antonio Conceição Paranhos Filho Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, Laboratório de Geoprocessamento para Aplicações Ambientais
Keywords: Cerrado, geo-technologies, natural and environmental vulnerability

Abstract

The natural vulnerability of the environment is prone to natural agents like geomorphology, geology, soils and its stability in relation to morphogenesis and pedogenesis. The environmental vulnerability is defined as the susceptibility of the environment to any potential impact caused by human actions. The objectives of this work were the evaluation of the land use at Ponta Porã municipality, located on the border between Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) and Paraguay, as well as the determination of its natural and environmental vulnerability. For this purpose, maps of geology, agricultural suitability, slope, topographic sheets and Landsat TM satellite images were used. The natural vulnerability had average values in 62.8% of the study area, low values in 20.7%, high in 12.8% and very high values in 3.7%. The high values of natural vulnerability corresponded to high values of environmental vulnerability as well. So it has been observed that 75.2% of the municipality, corresponding to about 400,704 ha has high to very high environmental vulnerability. These numbers have been found mainly in areas occupied by pasture and crop lands.

Published
27/08/2012
Issue
Vol. 7 No. 2 (2012)
Section
Papers

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