LANDSCAPE HEMEROBY INDEX AS A TOOL FOR SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL DIAGNOSIS AND TERRITORIAL PLANNING IN THE CAUAMÉ RIVER BASIN, RORAIMA, BRAZIL

Abstract

Anthropogenic changes contribute significantly to environmental, social, and economic issues, leading to the degradation of natural landscapes. The landscape hemeroby index is one of the methods that can generate a coherent socio-environmental diagnosis, allowing the identification and assessment of environmental degradations in landscape units. The method used consists of qualifying the hemeroby index of naturalness of the landscape through the application of geoprocessing techniques in the construction of land cover cartography using Landsat 9 images, followed by the definition of land use classification for final categorization into hemerobic units of the landscape. The socio-environmental diagnosis phase identifies areas affected by activities at their different levels of intervention. The results consisted of identifying and calculating the areas subject to different land uses, with their respective levels of environmental degradations and the general hemeroby index of the landscape for the entire region. The cartography defined hierarchical levels, which enable the selection of critical areas for mitigation, recovery, rehabilitation, and conservation interventions in the Cauamé River Basin. These results show the feasibility of calculating the hemeroby index of the landscape in the socio-environmental diagnosis for territorial planning.