Vulnerabilidade ambiental à erosão hídrica em uma sub-bacia hidrográfica pelo processo analítico hierárquico

Abstract

Water erosion is one of the greatest causes of deterioration of soils worldwide. In Brazil, erosion causes loss of productivity, advance of the agricultural frontier, silting and contamination of water bodies and biodiversity loss. Therefore, to contribute to environmental planning and land management, the environmental vulnerability to water erosion of the Mandu river hydrographic sub-basin, southern Minas Gerais State, was evaluated by empirical analysis of the fragility of natural and anthropogenic environments. Landscape components taken into consideration were: land use, relief, soils, geology and climate, in descending order of priority by the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). It was verified that the land uses are appropriate in 32.72% and inadequate in 67.28% in the area. More specifically, in 17.68% there is strong propensity to water erosion and in 0.08% of the site direct impacts of these processes are irreversible. So, the adoption of appropriate management techniques for pastures, the eradication of exposed soil and the rearrangement of coffee production sites and temporary agriculture would diminish the environmental impacts.