Recognition of flooding and inundation susceptibility in Ribeirão Vermelho Basin, Lavras/MG, Brazil

Abstract

The environment representation through maps and topographical maps, satellite images, among others, has shown to be an increasingly present resource in Geography due to the possibility of systemic integration of information from a specific area. In a Geographic Information System, maps makes possible to structure, guide and integrate the elements in a hierarchical way, enabling the elaboration of synthetic models that indicate part of the complexity of a determinated phenomenon. Thus, this article aims to present the mapping of Ribeirão Vermelho Basin, in the city of Lavras/MG, Brazil, aiming the recognition of flooding susceptible áreas. The theoretical-methodological foundation was based on the General Theory of Systems applied to Physical Geography, which directs the analysis of phenomena considering the integration of the parts with the whole. The materials are composed of cartographic and secondary data from which a series of thematic maps were prepared aiming to identify the attributes that contributed most significantly to the investigation. For this, the procedures of Multicriteria Decision Analysis and Hierarchical Process Analysis were adopted as parameters for integration between the variables. The information suggests that the Red River basin, as a whole, has a low susceptibility to flooding (50.26%); however, high-level class (12.85%) and higher-level class (0.34%) comprise a large part of the reported events, and validated based on data from “Defesa Civil” (Civil Defense department).