Publication Date:
2014-12-10
Description:
Approximately 57% of the Brazilian Northeast region is recognized as semiarid land and has been undergoing intense land use processes in the last decades, which have resulted in severe degradation of its natural assets. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the areas that are susceptible to desertification in this region based on the eleven driving factors of desertification (pedology, geology, geomorphology, topography data, land use and land cover change, aridity index, livestock density, rural population density, fire hot spot density, human development index (HDI), conservation units) which were model-simulated for two different periods: 2000 and 2010. Each indicator were assigned weights ranging from 1 to 2 (representing the best and the worst conditions), representing classes indicating low, moderate and high susceptibility to desertification. The result indicates that 94% of the Brazilian Northeast region is under moderate to high susceptibility to desertification. The areas that were susceptible to soil desertification increased by approximately 4.6% (83.35 km2) from 2000 to 2010. The implementation of the methodology provide the technical basis for decision making that involves mitigating actions, as well as the first comprehensive national assessment within the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification framework.
Electronic ISSN:
1869-9537
Topics:
Geosciences
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