TENDENCIA DE LA VEGETACIÓN DEGRADADA EN TERRITORIO BRASILEÑO Y SU RELACIÓN CON LA REDUCCIÓN EN LAS LLUVIAS (2000-2021)

Abstract

Land degradation is considered one of the most serious environmental problems today. However, in Brazil, the degree of knowledge of the process and the mapping of its expansion are still very incipient. The monitoring of degradation, using satellite data and standardized methodologies, is essential to contribute to strategies to combat environmental degradation and adaptation to extreme weather events, especially droughts. The objective of this research is to investigate the degradation process of the vegetation cover in the Brazilian territory and its relationship with the reduction of rainfall, from time series of satellite data, during the period 2000-2021. The areas of the Brazilian territory where the degradation significantly altered the dynamics of the vegetation were identified, from the examination of correlations between the trend of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), index of fires, and rain dynamics. The data allowed to identify that 39% of Brazil’s vegetation cover became degraded in the period. On the other hand, there was a growth of 33% of the biomass, usually characterized by the gain of agricultural vegetation or pastures. The data allowed to identify that the places where there was greater loss of vegetation by deforestation and burning, were precisely where a historical reduction in precipitation volumes was recorded. The results of the research alert to the high speed of vegetation degradation in the Brazilian territory. As a consequence, there is the expansion of irreversible processes of environmental deterioration, such as the risk of Amazon savanization and desertification in the Brazilian semi-arid.