Comparison of Pasture Areas Over Brazil Biomes Using Global And National Land Cover Maps

Abstract

Pasture land is the most extensive use over world. The objective was to compare two pasture land cover databases – (A) and (B) – for Brazil in 2015. (A) is a national pastureland map from a article and (B) is the MODIS land cover product. Pasture fraction maps were generated and expressed in same spatial resolution (5’) and coordinate system. Absolute difference map, total pasture area and correlation were computed. Both maps presented high pasture distribution over Cerrado and Caatinga biomes. (A) also had relevant pasture areas in Atlantic Forest and Pampa biomes. Total pasture area was 1,745,143 km2 for (A) and 1,860,086 km2 for (B). Most similarities occurred in the Pantanal biome. Higher dissimilarities were in Cerrado, Caatinga and Pampa biomes. Correlation of Brazilian territory was 0.45, with variations between biomes. Differences in databases influence their application and appropriate usage must consider the pasture definition/specification, spatial resolution and classification method.