Analysis of the natural vulnerability of soil loss in the Uruburetama Massif/CE

Abstract

Knowledge of the physical characteristics of a given environment is essential to ensure the effective management of natural resources. In this sense, the survey of morphometric variables is fundamental to guide land use planning. This work evaluated the natural vulnerability to soil degradation of the Uruburetama Massif humid hillside, using as evaluation support the morphometric variables extracted from the ALOS PALSAR Digital Elevation Model (DEM). For this, the slope, slope orientation, horizontal and vertical curvature variables were integrated in GIS environment, from a multicriteria analysis, where weights were established in percentages for each variable and grades from 0 to 10 for their respective thematic classes. From the natural vulnerability to soil loss map generated, it was found that practically all slopes of the humid hillside of the massif have medium to very high vulnerability. The slopes of the east, north and, especially, northeastern oriented massif showed the highest occurrence of high and very high vulnerability. The very low and low vulnerability classes are mainly distributed in the area surrounding the wetland, which corresponds to the backwoods depression, and in sectors of some valleys, where the process of pedogenesis is superior to morphogenesis. The map of natural vulnerability to soil degradation is an important instrument for environmental planning, serving as a support for orientation and supervision of use and occupation, in order to reduce damage and ensure sustainable agricultural development.