São João do Cariri is a municipality located in the Cariri Oriental microregion of the state of Paraíba (figure 1) which has been suffering significant land use and land cover changes. The extensive cattle raising, the deforestation for multiple purposes, the intense and permanent land use in small properties, the burned-over land to clean and prepare the land for planting, and the inadequate irrigation process may provoke serious impacts on its socioeconomic and physic-environmental conditions.
Figure 1. Location of São João do Cariri in the Northeast of Brasil (Pereira et al, 2010).
In this context, the present paper aims to construct a descriptive model to simulate the dynamics of land cover change in the municipality of São João do Cariri through the elaboration of land cover maps, generated by LANDSAT 5 TM images from different datas. The methodological procedures done and the obtained results persue to assist on decision making processes of planners, managers, and public administrators, as well as to be a reference for simulations of land use and land cover changes to be applied in other municipalities of the region. The results (figure 2) reveal that, for almost 30 years (from 1987 to 2008), happened an accelareted desertification process in the territory with a drastic reduction of the vegetation coverage and the hydric surface of the municipality.
Figure 2: Land coverage changes in São João do Cariri from 1987 to 2008.
The paper was presented at Congresso Luso-Brasileiro para o Planejamento Urbano, Regional, Integrado e Sustentável -
PLURIS 2014 which was held in Lisboa, Portugal from 24 to 26 September 2014.
