Avaliação do processo de degradação da cobertura vegetal em Serra Branca e Coxixola-PB.

Abstract

The disordered and not-planned development of population distribution and soil usage increases vegetal covering degradation, whose deforestations speed up rivers and reservoirs erosion and river capture, rising the level of related atypical disasters related to seasonal floods and droughts in the Brazilian northeastern (Semi Árido). Thus, the purpose was to evaluate the degradation of vegetal covering between 1987 and 2004, in the towns of Serra Branca and Coxixola, in the Cariri Paraibano. The classification of vegetal covering was carried through analysis of TM digital images from Landsat 5 satellite taking into account the IVDN base images, what allowed characterizing of vegetation type, soil and water. The analysis evidenced the increase of the exploration of the vegetal covering, observing a transformation of the landscape, with an increment of 14.45% of the areas of thin vegetation associated to exposed soil. The soil, without natural protection, allows the increase of the erosion risk. This process indicates the expansion of the areas with serious levels of degradation and shows the importance of actions to speed down the Caatinga devastation process acting against the irrational usage of natural resources.