LAND USE AND LAND OCCUPATION, 1984 – 2022, AS AN INDICATOR OF ANTHROPIC DEGRADATION IN THE PARACATU BROOK/PR BASIN

Abstract

Anthropogenic intervention related to land use and occupation, 1984, 1997, 2010, and 2022, was addressed as an indicator for the analysis of environmental degradation in the Paracatu brook basin, located in North Central Paraná, which covers parts of the municipalities of Nova Esperança, Atalaia, and Presidente Castelo Branco. The analysis was subsidized by bibliographic and field surveys, through socioeconomic historicization and physical-natural characterization correlated to the use of geoprocessing techniques that provided the elaboration of land use and occupation charts, in addition to the slope, which was associated to the relief forms. It was found that in the comparative analyses of the use and occupation maps of 1984, 1997, 2010 and 2022, the land uses generated pressure on the development of environmental degradation, highlighting the development of erosive processes and silting of waterways, associated with the suppression of riparian vegetation on the banks of the Paracatu stream and the Caxangá brook. The results obtained highlight the need for joint actions of the municipalities, public and private power, state environmental agencies that encompass the mentioned watershed, so that the production of space is planned considering the socio-environmental interests.

Keywords: Environmental Impacts. Geoindicators. Hydrographic basin.