Evaluation of the dynamics of anthropogenic expansion over natural areas in the municipality of Maringá-PR, Brazil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is the most fragmented Brazilian biome due to human impacts, mainly from urban expansion and agricultural activities. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the temporal dynamics of human expansion in the municipality of Maringá, in the state of Paraná. We seek to assess the general changes in the landscape as well as the specific dynamics of land use and land cover in the riparian zone of urban and peri-urban rivers in the municipality. For this, land use and land cover data from the years 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019, from the MapBiomas project were used, reclassified into four categories: Natural Forest, Natural Non-Forest, Urban Anthropic and Non-Urban Anthropic. The main results were (i) Most of the Maringá territory, in the analyzed period, was composed by the Non-Urban Anthropic category; (ii) The greatest growth was in the Urban Anthropic category and the smallest in the Natural Non-Forest category; (iii) In the analysis of riparian zones, there was a high participation of the Non-Urban Anthropic category, despite this decreasing over time. In addition, the Natural Forest category grew in all hydrographic basins, while the Urban Anthropic category grew in some. In the general context, the dynamics of the anthropic expansion of the municipality of Maringá, in the period between 1989 and 2019, was represented mostly by the replacement of agricultural areas by urban areas. In addition, there was an increase in the forest area in the riparian zone of urban and peri-urban rivers and a recent emergence of urban infrastructure in some hydrographic basins, to the detriment of a reduction in agricultural area. In this last point, we hope that the results of this work can be used by the government in identifying the most vulnerable regions to human actions on natural areas in the municipality, contributing to the implementation of improvements in the planning of land use and cover in Maringá.