Analysis of land use and occupation in the interior of Bahia through geotechnologies: case study of the municipality of São Gabriel

Abstract

Anthropic action has been causing significant changes in land use and occupation, bringing with it many negative environmental impacts that cause the degradation of natural resources mainly due to agriculture and inadequate soil management, as in the municipality of São Gabriel. This work aimed to analyze the variation of land use and occupation between the years 1987 to 2018 through geotechnologies. The classifications obtained accuracy above 95% by the Kappa method. According to the results, the rural credit policies carried out in the 1960s in the region directly influenced the spatial dynamics of the municipality, since it encouraged plant suppression for the cultivation of beans, corn and castor beans. In 1987, the agricultural area occupied 52.8% of the municipality. After 31 years and the end of the rural credit policy, in 2018 there was still the permanence of inadequate soil management. The area for agriculture increased to 9.7%, but there was a decrease in production over the years with increasing areas of exposed soil, corresponding to 40% of the municipality, which are in degradation processes, highlighting the loss of productivity, silting up of bodies of water and accelerated erosion processes, also pointing to some areas in the process of desertification and fragmentation of the Caatinga Biome.