Abstract
The environmental fragility analysis evaluates the susceptibility of an environment to degradation. Thus, the goals of this work are to analyze and map the environmental fragility of the Lapa Grande State Park (PELG), Brazil, and its buffer zone (ZA) and also quantify the changes in the vegetation cover before and after the implementation of the PELG. The environmental fragility was evaluated through multicriteria analysis using the factors: slope, geology, pedology and land use and land cover. The changes in the high vigor vegetation cover were determined from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for 1996, 2006 and 2016. It was verified that the central-east and northeast regions of the PELG presented the greatest environmental fragilities in 1996, and significant reductions in the areas with high and very high fragility were observed in 2006 and 2016 due to the increase in the vegetation cover after the implementation of the PELG, which was more expressive in the park area than in the ZA. The increase of 20.7% of 2006 to 2016 in the vegetation with greater vigor, proved the importance of the creation of a conservation unit.
Highlights
Aggregating economic development with environmental conservation is a major challenge for humanity
The PELG is located in the municipality of Montes Claros, which is approximately 5 km from the center of the city in the northern region of the State of Minas Gerais (Figure 1)
- There was significant reduction of the environmental fragility degrees between 2006 and 2016 due to an increase 17.5% of forest areas and dense Cerrado after the creation of the conservation unit, which mitigated the natural fragility of the area;
Summary
Aggregating economic development with environmental conservation is a major challenge for humanity. Population growth has increased the demand for natural resources and, along with indiscriminate anthropogenic activities, it has accelerated environmental degradation, including the degradation of areas considered protected and essential for biodiversity preservation (Nandy et al 2015). The consequences of the exploitation of natural resources may be variable. To understand and quantify the relationship between human activity and environmental quality, environmental fragility models have been created, which have become a valuable tool for decision makers and planning development policies (Manfré et al 2013, Tran et al 2010).
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