Effects of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Soil Erosion in the Caatinga Biome
Seridó River Basin, Tropical dry Forest, RUSLE3D, Sustainability
Changes in the natural environment on a global scale have transformed land use and cover into an important instrument to be studied. The RUSLE3D model was applied to the Seridó River Basin, completely inserted in the Caatinga biome, to identify the most vulnerable area to soil loss due to changes in land use and cover over the three decades (1988 to 2018). Soil use and coverage data were made available by MAPBIOMAS and the years were selected based on the total annual rainfall. Information regarding the factors used in RUSLE3d was acquired from the literature review, with the estimates and spatializations performed using the Python language and geoprocessing. Erosivity was influenced by local relief and native vegetation currently represents 54.49% of the area, a reduction of 8.29% compared to the initial period. Furthermore, it is noted that more than 35% of the area has already undergone at least one change in use over the three decades, the main cause being the advance of farming in forest areas. In general, the study area presents low erosion, indicating that the caatinga vegetation can attenuate the erosion process. With the replacement of native vegetation, erosion has intensified in some areas over the years, highlighting the need to implement appropriate management and management practices to control erosion in caatinga areas.