Environmental vulnerability of the Senhor do Bonfim Municipality (BA) as a subsidy to the territorial environmental

Abstract

The functionality of natural environments is altered by human actions at a rate more intense than that normally produced by nature itself. When unplanned, such changes provide a series of functional imbalances that often have drastic consequences on human life and nature itself. Examples of these environmental imbalances can be seen in most municipalities located in the semiarid Brazilian region. These, in the last decades have suffered with the improper implantation of new forms of use and occupation of the earth. Deforestation, the discharge of effluents into the waterways, the grounding and the construction in intermittent river channels denounce the lack of concern with land use planning. When considering the natural physical framework and the dialectical relations of land use and occupation of the Bahia north territory, this research aims to analyze the environmental vulnerability of the municipality of Senhor do Bonfim (BA) through geoprocessing techniques, in order to subsidize the development environmental. For this purpose, environmental vulnerability indexes were elaborated based on the integration of geological, pedological, clinographic and land use and occupation characteristics in a GIS environment. The results indicate the classes that present medium and high vulnerability include the inselberges and other residual reliefs. The low and very low vulnerability classes cover the tops of the pediplane located in the study area. The results allowed the understanding of the different degrees of vulnerability of each unit against certain anthropic pressures, and can be used as an instrument of local and regional environmental planning.