Space-temporal evaluation of biophysical parameters in the High Ipanema watershed by remote sensing

Abstract

The High Ipanema watershed is located in a semiarid region and because of this, becomes more vulnerable and susceptible to the effects of environmental changes and the degradation process, it has serious economic and socio-environmental implications. In recent years with the advancement of remote sensing based on satellite imagery or other platforms, it has become possible to monitor different and large areas of the various biomes in the world. The objective of this study was to identify changes in the vegetation cover conditions in the Alto Ipanema watershed, using spectral analyzes of Landsat-8 OLI / TIRS satellite images, using remote sensing techniques. Landsat-8 OLI / TIRS satellite images were obtained from the United States Geological Survey – USGS, on 10/12/2013, 14/01/2015 and 12/08/2016, where they were processed from ERDAS IMAGINE® Software, version 9.1. The thematic maps of biophysical parameters were processed by ArcGis® 10.2.2 Software. With the biophysical parameters analyzed, it was found that the northwest portion of the watershed presents a considerable area of exposed soils with indication of a high degree of susceptibility to degradation and that the biophysical parameters evaluated by the SEBAL algorithm are efficient in understanding the dynamics of spatial and temporal areas of semiarid environments.