Geoindicadores como critério de validação de metodologias de análise da vulnerabilidade da paisagem

Abstract

Over the past decades, the diagnostic analysis of scenarios conducive to erosive processes development has been tested considering different variables and methodologies. In Brazil, two significant approaches emerge for this purpose: environmental fragility (FA) and natural erosion vulnerability (VNE). These models consider different variables and weights of importance for the analysis, resulting in distinct outcomes. Considering the uniqueness of each natural environment, deriving weights associated with maps through multicriteria analysis emerges as a proposal to enhance this diagnosis, aiming to provide a way to predict the occurrence of erosive processes. In this context, the objective of this study was to apply the aforementioned methodologies and a variation incorporating a multicriteria method to compare the applications through qualitative and quantitative validation of superficial morphological changes in the landscape. Thematic mappings were created in a Hydrographic Basin (BH) for constructing susceptibility maps of the environments. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used as the multicriteria method to derive the weights of importance for each variable. Subsequently, a map of linear erosive process density was generated, allowing for comparison between diagnostic methods and the reality of the BH. It was observed that the incorporation of the multicriteria method resulted in a weighting more consistent with the environmental characteristics of the study area, mitigating the generalization resulting from the direct application of the original FA and VNE methods. However, qualitative and quantitative validation in the Hydrographic Basin of Água Quente Stream, through overlays and statistical correlation, revealed a scenario where the applied methods did not meet the expectation of predicting the surface configuration represented by geoindicators.