Mapping the Official Boundaries of the Mosaic of Protected Areas of Espinhaço: Interactivity between GIS and Integrated Management of Land

Abstract

The preservation of natural areas is the primary form for the conservation of biological diversity, existing around the
planet delimited areas with the purpose of protection, given its uniqueness, beauty, threat level and other parameters
that characterize the need for effective management and sustainable management of natural resources present there.
The management of protected areas in isolation is not sufficient for the preservation, creation means of integrated
landscape management is required and in this sense a fairly consistent format are the mosaics of protected areas. This
paper presents the procedures used to delimit the “Mosaic of Protect Areas of Espinhaço - Alto Jequitinhonha - Serra
do Cabral”, which was performed interactively, from the combination of automatic methods using GIS techniques made
possible with a detailing from mapping strategic issues management mosaic, obtained by assembling the advisory board
of the mosaic itself. The initial proposal for delimitation mosaic was created taking into account the aspects of the
physical environment as a planning unit, so the division was made by dividing the watershed ridge line of the region,
and in some places, the drainage system itself. This limitation was automated in a Geographic Information System
(GIS) based on topographic Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 30 meter spatial resolution from the Shuttle Radar
Topographic Mission (SRTM). The delimitation of this mosaic of protected areas considering only those aspects of
the physical environment in order to leverage had the power management of the same, so this initial map was
presented at a meeting of the advisory board of the mosaic to be adjusted and it is then included politicaladministrative
boundaries in consistent with the objectives of protection and conservation of these areas. It was
interesting to see this path of de-signing the official boundary of this protected area, the great importance of GIS
techniques employed, as they allowed the tracing of the border area taking into account environmental aspects, as
well as systematized the visualization mapping to a relatively lay public in area of Geotechnology, but possessed of
other related environmental management and planning expertise that could then contribute to a better decision about
the official limits of this area. The use of DEM of the SRTM mission with 30 meters (1 arc second) spatial
resolution proved to be extremely effective, noting that, in theory, it has better precision altimetry information, as
interpolations to improve their spatial resolution were not performed. The boundaries created by the hydrological
tools aimed at ArcGIS 10.1 also proved effectiveness, with good results compared to official databases of this nature.