Morphometric characterization and multitemporal analysis of land use and land cover in the Itacaiúnas River Watershed, Pará

Abstract

A watershed is a drainage area of a main river and its tributaries, a geographic and hydrological compartmentation delimited by water and topographic dividers that drain water. The Itacaiúnas River watershed is located in southeastern Pará and covers the municipalities of Água Azul do Norte, Canaã dos Carajás, Curionópolis, Eldorado dos Carajás, Marabá, Ourilândia do Norte, Parauapebas, Piçarra, São Geraldo do Araguaia, Sapucaia and Xinguara, all in the state of Pará. The article aims to morphometrically characterize and multitemporally analyze the land use and land cover, in order to assist in future decision-making for better planning in the region, aiming at development without affecting or degrading the watershed disorderly. The morphometric parameters were extracted geometrically and the land use and land cover classification was carried out using landsat 5 and landsat 8 satellite images. The basin has a total area of 41317.891 km², a perimeter of 1371.289 km, the length of the main course of the basin having 479.777 km and the total length of the water courses of the basin having 6203.216 km. The study showed that the basin tends to conserve itself, since it doesn’t have a shape similar to a circumference, but with the urban and disorderly growth, along with the expansion of agriculture, livestock and mineral extraction, are agents that put at risk the soil in the region with erosive processes as future consequences.