Characterization of the landscape of the Caldas River Basin/GO: Mapping, photography and landscape analysis

The inadequate occupation, the fragmentation of native vegetation and the degradation of natural resources are some of the main causes of negative environmental impacts in watersheds. The landscape, on its turn, becomes an important element for the verification of environmental conditions and for the analysis regarding the use and occupation of the soil. Therefore, this book presents a characterization of the landscape of the Caldas River Watershed, located in the State of Goiás. The study area covers nine municipalities and the Caldas River is one of the main tributaries of the Meia Ponte River. For the delimitation of the updated map of land use, an in loco investigation was carried out, being registered geographically and photographed 68 points aiming at the supervised classification, whose data were processed by the ENVI 4.7 software. The ArcGIS 10.5 software was also used for the elaboration of the maps of native vegetation fragments and Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs). The fragments were analysed in terms of their area, shape and edge effect, while the PPAs were compared with the uses indicated on their boundaries to survey the environmental quality of the region.