Análise do uso e ocupação da terra como agente de transformação ambiental na APA Serra do Lajeado – TO

Abstract

Changes in vegetation cover, occupation and use of the Earth occur throughout the Planet, are strongly associated with population growth and socioeconomic development processes, Tocantins is no exception to this scenario. As a place of strong evidence of this situation there is the Nature Conservation Unit and Environmental Protection Area of Serra do Lajeado, located in Tocantins, former state of Goiás and object of observation of the present study. The changes suffered in the region can be easily identified, starting in the 1970s, after the publication of Decree nº 75,320, of January 24, 1975, the regulation that created the POLOCENTRO (Cerrados Development Program). This government program aimed to develop the Cerrado region, promoting its occupation, but the process was very accelerated, both in terms of occupation and use of resources, generating a need for monitoring and surveying. Given this scenario, this type of survey has become essential for understanding geographic space and development expansions. The present study used the interpretation of satellite images to prepare thematic maps and represent the use and occupation of land, mainly those corresponding to the Serra do Lajeado Conservation Unit, located in the municipalities of Palmas, Lajeado, Aparecida do Rio Negro and Tocantínia (central region of the State of Tocantins). Geoprocessing image collection techniques were used, with registration, highlighting, segmentation and supervised classification, covering the years 1089, 2000, 2010 and 2019. Changes were observed in the APA landscape, in time and space, both due to the action of agents of transformation that occupied the area, as well as the ways in which it was used. The rural savanna formation that covered 48% of the region in 1989, and which dropped to less than 1% in 2019, was worth highlighting, being the type of use with the greatest change in the environment compared to the others. Another point of relevance was the agricultural expansion, which went from 26% in 1989, to 66% in 2019. Therefore, there is a significant reduction in rural vegetation in the Cerrado and a great expansion of large-scale agricultural activity in the region, causing a very large change in the natural landscape of the place.