Permanent preservation areas and environmental fragility: a methodological proposal

Resumen

Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) are essential for protecting sensitive ecosystems. However, their functions are increasingly compromised by human activities. Incorporating PPAs into environmental fragility assessments is strategic for identifying conflicts between land use and legally protected areas. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this study proposes a methodology that integrates land use and land cover (LULC) data with PPA boundaries to generate an environmental fragility layer, using the municipality of Lorena, State of São Paulo, Brazil, as a case study. The method applies spatial overlay techniques and assigns different fragility levels to LULC classes according to their occurrence inside or outside water-related PPAs. The application of the methodology in Lorena showed that more than 60% of water-related PPAs are occupied by pastures and mixed-use mosaics, resulting in high-fragility areas diffusely distributed across the municipality. PPAs associated with urban areas, rocky outcrops, and non-vegetated areas concentrated very high fragility levels (0.2% of the territory) mainly in the central region. These patterns are driven by soil impermeabilization and consolidated land occupation. The integrated analysis enabled a more refined fragility classification than assessments based solely on LULC data. The proposed methodology effectively identified overlaps between anthropogenic land uses and legally protected areas, providing an environmental fragility diagnosis consistent with ecological and regulatory frameworks. It represents a robust and replicable tool for environmental management, supporting territorial planning, identification of priority areas for ecological restoration, and natural resource conservation in different regional contexts.

Keywords: environmental planning, geographic information systems, land use and land cover.