DETERMINATION OF THE VEGETATION COVERAGE OF OLINDA, PERNAMBUCO - BRAZIL: A SUBSIDE TO THE URBAN FOREST MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Urban expansion without proper planning has promoted a series of harmful effects for the population of cities, both environmentally and socially. However, vegetation is increasingly associated with quality of life, due to the proven benefits it promotes in the urban environment. The objective of this research was to classify the vegetation coverage of Olinda - Pernambuco, in order to quantify its urban forest. An image from SENTINEL-2 satellite with 10 m spatial resolution was used to classify the municipality's land use. Through software QGIS 2.14.11, the classes of urban infrastructure, water, exposed soil, vegetation and cloud were identified by means of MaxVer classification, which was divided by administrative political regions for the mapping. The city's vegetal cover indexes were determined and quantified. The amount of vegetation in the regions was variable, but they were unsatisfactory for promoting environmental benefits to the population, with the exception of the Rural Zone, where there is greater quantity of vegetation. It was observed that Olinda is a city with a deficit of vegetation cover. It was possible to notice that the municipality lacks vegetated areas, as well as afforestation.