No abstract

No abstract

This article reports on an analysis of the Vidoca watershed involving the assessment of human occupation of Permanent Preservation Areas (PPA). These areas are defined by the Forest Code Law to protect environmentally sensitive areas along water bodies, wells, sloping areas and hill tops. The work was based on orthorectified aerial photographs, 1:10,000 topographic charts and field work using the freely available image processing package integrated with GIS known as SPRING. Results revealed that this watershed with an area of 4909.7 ha has 683.0 ha in PPA (14.0%) from which 13.1 are being used improperly. Considering the strong pressure that this area is suffering for urban development, this watershed is in dangerous of environmental degradation. However, the Forest Code if properly enforced could prevent further negative impacts.Palavras-chave: remote sensing, image processing, urban land use, sensoriamento remoto, processamento de imagens, legislação ambiental, código florestal.