Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Forest Fragmentation in Río Botello Catchment at Facatativá (Colombia)

Abstract

Nowadays the biodiversity loss has appeared with the search for human economic development which has reached dramatic proportions. Knowledge of biodiversity itself it is an essential factor, for finding the problems it faces and so develop appropriate control and conservation strategies. One of the main concerns in these days it is to characterize natural environments and how this have changed in recent years. The purpose of this study was to analyze the process of fragmentation of forests at the spatial and temporal level in the Río Botello catchment, Facatativá, Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, during the period 1985 to 2018. A time series of LANDSAT satellite images for 1985, 2001 and 2018 was used for this analysis, along with the CORINE LAND COVER methodology adapted for Colombia. The configuration of the identified terrestrial coverages was done with the FRAGSTATS software and the IndiFrag v2.1 application. These results show that the percentage of forests in the catchment decreased from 41% of the total area to 31% in the last 30 years, this because agricultural areas increased at an annual growth rate of 0.841 km2/year that replaced the natural forest mainly in the northeast and northwest sectors of the study area. The Eastern Cordillera of Colombia is one of the most deforested in the last 50 years. According to results it is necessary to carry out an integrated management of the catchment by different institutions to reduce the fragmentation and deforestation of natural areas.