Mudanças da paisagem e vulnerabilidade ambiental nos municípios de Codajás e Anori, AM

Abstract

The study of landscape changes in the central Amazon is extremely important for identifying areas susceptible to environmental impacts resulting from the interactions between society and nature, which influence levels of environmental vulnerability. The study area was a rectangle encompassing portions of the municipalities of Codajás and Anori (AM), with a strategic focus on the AM-454 highway corridor. Therefore, the general objective was to analyze land-use changes and their relationship to levels of environmental vulnerability in the study area. To this end, the specific objectives included characterizing the geographic elements of the study area, that is, gathering information and mapping the geology, geomorphology, pedology, vegetation, and climate, as well as providing historical and social context for the municipalities. Subsequently, the second objective involved identifying land-use types from a temporal and spatial perspective using the MapBiomas platform, with validation through technical field visits. Finally, the third objective was to classify the degrees of environmental vulnerability through an integrated landscape analysis, grounded in the adapted proposal by Crepani et al. (2001), which is based on the principles of Tricart’s (1977) ecodynamics. With regard to methodological procedures, the research relied on the use of geotechnologies and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the processing and analysis of spatial data. MapBiomas enabled the temporal and spatial analysis of land use and vegetation cover in the landscape. The CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data) product was used to analyze the climate variable, namely erosivity. FABDEM (Forest-And-Buildings removed Copernicus DEM) was used to analyze the slope and elevation of the terrain in the study area. Vector data on geology, geomorphology, pedology, and vegetation were obtained from the Environmental Information Bank (BDIA). The cross-analysis of the selected variables—namely, land use and vegetation cover, slope, hypsometry, pedology, geology, and erosivity was conducted in a GIS environment (QGIS) using map algebra and supplemented by the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) multi-criteria analysis method to rank and assign weights to the variables, ultimately resulting in classifying environmental vulnerability into the following categories: Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, and Very High. In the study area, the “Very Low” environmental vulnerability class is found along portions of the Solimões River and in Lakes Anamã, Anori, and Codajás; the “Low” class is associated with preserved forest formations; flooded areas, represented by igapó forests, were classified as having Moderate vulnerability, while areas of consolidated land use fell into the High and Very High environmental vulnerability categories. The results obtained serve as a spatial assessment of the resilience of local ecosystems, taking into account their limitations and potential for land use. To this end, it is important that municipal public policies, when addressing economic activities, be grounded in an environmental understanding of the landscape, ensuring that regional development occurs while respecting nature’s physical limits.