Spatial and temporal variability of vegetation cover in the moxotó watershed, Pernambuco, Brasil Variabilidad espacial y temporal de la cobertura vegetal de los años 1984 a 2011 en la cuenca hidrográfica del Río Moxotó, Pernambuco, Brasil

Abstract

The Caatinga vegetation is predominant in the Moxotó basin hidrology. This type of vegetation has been cleared at an accelerated rate, mainly due to the consumption of native wood, exploited for domestic industrial and agricultural purposes. The aim of this study is to analyze the state of the vegetation in the period 1984-2011 using the Vegetation Index Normalized Difference-NDVI and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index - SAVI. Both indexes will be used to identify the vegetation of the basin according to its density of forested area. The NDVI and SAVI results were adapted to generate a watershed vegetation classification out of vegetal density categories. According to the results, it was possible to identify three types of vegetation density of forested area: low, medium and high. The results indicate a profuse presence of the lower density vegetation in the watershed and that the higher density vegetation is less than 3% of the vegetation in the watershed.