Zoning environmental fragility of natural and anthropped ecosystems in the South of the State of Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

The development of civilization stems from the consumption of natural resources, notably ecosystem services, especially those provided by river basins. Given this context, this study aims to map the degrees of environmental fragility of the Rio Salgado Hydrographic Basin, located in the South of the State of Bahia, from a multi-criteria analysis of different biophysical and land use and cover data, processed in geographic information system and machine learning. With the results, it appears that the slope of the topography and soil classes are determinant for the potential fragility of the evaluated ecosystem, varying in greater proportion from low to medium. In emerging fragility, it was found that environments previously classified as having a high degree of potential fragility reduced their levels, due to the presence of forest fragments. In another aspect, levels classified as low and medium frailty started to obtain medium and high emergent frailties, due to
local anthropization. The results will serve for a more sustainable territorial planning and management, being a contribution to the Committee of the River Basins of the East.