ANÁLISE DA DISTRIBUIÇÃO ESPACIAL DAS QUEIMADAS NO PARQUE NACIONAL DA SERRA DA CANASTRA (MG), ENTRE 1984 E 2017

Abstract

Spontaneous fire events have contributed to the evolution of the Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado) biome for the last 32,000 years. However, very frequent anthropogenic fires have reduced the natural vegetation cover areas and have become a great problem for the Conservation Units longevity. The aim of this work is to analyze the spatial distribution of fire events that have occurred in the Serra da Canastra National Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 1984 and 2017. The visual fire mapping was created by Geographic Information Systems from Landsat images, and the fire frequency map, for this period of time, was generated. The results show that the Chapadão da Babilônia is the most affected area by fires, because it has not been regularized. In the Chapadão da Canastra, although the characteristics are similar to the Chapadão da Babilônia’s, the forest fires are less frequent due to regularization and development of fire combat and prevention. In the buffer zone the affected areas by fire are small, but the number of fire polygons is higher than the Chapadão da Canastra’s and that of Babilônia’s. Land regularization is essential to reduce the frequency of forest fires in the Chapadão da Babilônia.