Estrutura da paisagem da microbacia hidrográfica do rio Sinimbu

Abstract

Changes in land cover and land use caused by human activities have led to high levels of landscape fragmentation and degradation. For effective planning aimed at restoration, assessing the landscape structure and its configuration is the first step. For this reason, the objective of this study was to examine the landscape structure of the Sinimbu River micro-watershed in the northern coastal region of Paraíba. Land cover and land use data provided by the MapBiomas platform were used. The following metrics were used to analyze the landscape structure: Land Cover; Number of patches; Total core area; Edge length; and Average patch shape index, all calculated using the LecoS plugin in the QGIS GIS software. Based on the analysis of these metrics, a highly heterogeneous landscape was observed, comprising 13 distinct classes, with a predominance of anthropogenic classes (55.37%), though it still retains a natural matrix (forest formation). Regarding the landscape structure of the microbasin, the forest fragments are highly fragmented, comprising 240 fragments including 225 small, 11 medium, and 4 large fragments and are subject to a high edge effect (46.54%), which puts biodiversity at risk, as it is restricted to interior conditions. Thus, this study suggests that close attention must be paid to the watershed.