ENVIRONMENTAL FRAGILITY AND ZONING FOR SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION IN SOUTHERN BAHIA, BRAZIL
Tropical ecosystems; Environmental sustainability; Natural resource management; Tecnologic innovation; Geospatial analysis.
Physical-environmental studies are essential for the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, providing fundamental information for understanding ecosystems. In the southern region of Bahia, Brazil, where the interaction between physical and environmental components is complex, such studies play a critical role in biodiversity conservation. This doctoral thesis proposes an integrative approach to biosystems, focusing on technological application. Three works were carried out to achieve this objective. The first aimed to investigate the environmental fragility of terrain systems in a river basin. Using a multi-criteria approach, eight terrain systems were identified and evaluated, with emphasis on areas with a high degree of emerging fragility due to anthropogenic activities, and in areas protected by the presence of native vegetation cover. The second study addressed the zoning of environmental fragility of natural and man-made ecosystems, and was applied in the same region as the first study, using multi-criteria analyzes of biophysical and land use data. The methodologies used included detailed geospatial analyzes of soil, lithology and slope, and were combined with machine learning techniques used in data analysis and interpretation. The results highlighted the influence of topography and soil characteristics on the potential fragility of the ecosystem, as well as changes in emerging fragility due to factors such as forest fragmentation and human activities. Finally, the third study proposed environmental zoning applied to soil and water conservation. The methodology involved the detailed characterization of physical-environmental systems and the application of Hierarchical Process Analysis (AHP) techniques to weight the data. Results indicated areas with use restrictions due to environmental fragility, highlighting the need to implement soil management and conservation practices to guarantee the sustainability of water resources. This thesis offers a comprehensive approach to sustainable management in the southern region of Bahia, thus contributing to the development of conservation practices.