TITLE:
An Approach to Environmental Planning and Sustainable Management of Watersheds and Municipalities in Southeastern Brazil
AUTHORS:
Eduarda Romanini, Angela Terumi Fushita, José Eduardo dos Santos
KEYWORDS:
Sustainability Indicators, Landscape Metrics, Conservation Scenarios, Geotechnology
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.6 No.11,
October
24,
2016
ABSTRACT: Diagnosis
of fragmentation and landscape sustainability conditions are essential to
environmental planning and sustainable management of natural resources. Land
use spatial patterns and landscape structural indexes (landscape metrics,
Urbanity Index— UI, and Landscape Vulnerability Index—LVI) have been proposed
to assess biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability, provided by
impact of land use at Middle Mogi Guaçu watershed and its seventeen
municipalities, in 2009. Land use typologies and structural indexes values were
obtained based on screen digitizing of LandSat-5 imagery, for 2009. Cluster
analysis and Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance were used to test
the null hypothesis of equal degrees of fragmentation and sustainability
conditions among municipalities in 2009, respectively. Land use spatial pattern
showed a predominantly human occupation for watershed and its municipalities,
with agricultural use as the main pressure factor. Municipalities were
aggregated into three clusters related to forest fragmentation: one categorized
by fifteen municipalities; the second cluster (municipality of Luiz Antônio)
showing the best condition, and the third group (municipality of Araraquara)
with extreme fragmentation condition. Landscape metrics related with shape,
size, and core areas fragments intensify edge effects, and increase habitat
isolation. The watershed showed a low naturalness and an intermediate degree of
vulnerability. Ecological sustainability was different among municipalities (α = 0.05, F = 32.65 and p = 0.002), with
two municipalities (Analandia and Luiz Antônio) presenting the best conditions.
The most committed condition was observed, in municipalities of Rincão and
Guatapará. For conservation policies to be effective must focus on the creation
of ecological corridors around legally protected areas, besides creation of new
legal reserves, with purpose to improve biodiversity conservation and
ecological sustainability of Middle Mogi Guaçu watershed and its
municipalities.