Vulnerabilidade ambiental em Áreas de Preservação Permanente (APP) da Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Potengi, RN, Brasil

Environmental vulnerability in Permanent Preservation Areas (PPA) of the Potengi River Watershed, RN, Brazil

Abstract

The Permanent Preservation Areas (PPA) are established by the Brazilian Forest Code, which sets the general rules for the exploitation of native vegetation and regulates the protection of certain land uses in recognized vulnerable areas. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Environmental Vulnerability to soil loss in PPA areas in the Potengi River Basin (PRB), Rio Grande do Norte (RN). In addition, it is intended to identify conflicts related to land use and occupation in order to validate three specific PPA in the field. The Environmental Vulnerability was classified in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based on Multicriteria Analysis, using map algebra based on weighted linear combination. As a result, five vulnerability classes were obtained in the PPA: Very Low, Low, Moderate, High and Very High. The degrees of Moderate, High and Very High vulnerability added up to 83.73% of the total PPA areas. With regard to land use conflicts, the predominant activity found in areas of Very High vulnerability was pasture, representing 91.4% of these areas.