Conflicts of land use and cover for the period 1985 to 2017 in the Caldas River Basin-Go

Abstract

The Caldas River basin has a drainage area of about 1,288.00 km2 covers eleven municipalities and its main watercourse is tributary of the Meia-Ponte river, one of the sources that supply Goiânia. The objective of this study was to analyze: a) the conflicts of use of the land by anthropic activities in the Caldas River basin, state of Goiás, emphasizing the occurrences of these activities in the Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) of watercourses, according to Law 12.651/2012 (Forest Code); b) the history of the irregular occupation of the APPs for a period of 32 years (1985 - 2017), observing whether there are still irregularities in the use of the land of these sites after the approval of the Forest Code. The methodology consisted of the consultation of legal documents, cartographic evaluation and classification of satellite images for the years 1985, 2008, 2012 and 2017. It was verified that 35,903 km2 are occupied by APPs sampled in this study, approximately 2.8% of basin area. For 1985, an area of 30.93 km2 of land use conflicts in APPs was increased to 19.9 km2 in 2008, 22.67 km2 in 2012 and 17.18 km2 in 2017. Pasture was the class that occupied most areas in the APPs in all evaluated years. Changes in legislation after 1985 have influenced the reduction of the occupation of APPs, but in 2017 more than 47% of these areas are still illegally occupied. The results show that the APPs studied underwent anthropic interventions throughout the analyzed period, evidencing non-compliance with federal environmental legislation.