The Environmental Protection Area (EPA) of Banhado Grande, located in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, comprises three areas of marshes, the Banhado Chico Lomã, the Banhado Grande and Banhado dos Pachecos. In periods of large flood pulses extensive flooded areas are formed between these wetlands and the river Gravataí floodplain, establishing a connectivity between the Wetlands of EPABG. This connectivity indicates that there is an interaction between these wetlands, such as exchange of nutrients, sediments and living organisms. Thus, this study aims to map extensive floodable areas associated with large flood pulses and to analyze the connectivity areas in EPABG. For this, the work is structured in three steps: i) choice of satellite images between the years 2000 to 2015 to identify largest flood pulses; ii) mapping of floodable areas in large flood pulses using images Normalized Difference Index Water (NDWI); and iii) analysis of the connectivity among wetlands. As the results, in large flood pulses, with precipitation greater than 247 mm, in the 30 days prior to the date of the image, establishing a large area of connectivity between the wetlands, forming on the polygon defined by elevation of 11 metres, two types of connectivity: wetlands-wetlands connectivity, allowing interactions among environments with turf and lagoon deposits; and wetlands-stream connectivity, linking the alluvial and floodplain of the Gravataí River deposits with the background lagoon and paludals deposits. Already, in flood pulses of flooding with rainfall less than or equal to 200 mm, in the last 30 days, the flooded area appears fragmented inside the polygon associated at an elevation of 11 metres, mainly in the corridor between the marshes Grande and the Pachecos, that does not connect by flood, forming just wetlands-stream connectivity. Thus, the characterization of the flood pulses and connectivity become fundamental to the understanding of the dynamic of wetlands, because, make aware of for the need to preserve these areas of importance for flood control, microclimate regulation and maintenance of biodiversity.

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Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar a vulnerabilidade natural à perda de solo do município de Barão de Cotegipe, RS. Para tanto, criou-se um banco de dados espaciais em um ambiente de Sistemas de Informações Geográficas com auxílio do software Spring versão 5.0.6. O mapa de vulnerabilidade natural à perda de solo foi elaborado com base nas informações referentes à geomorfologia, geologia, solos, vegetação e uso e ocupação da terra, de acordo com o grau de vulnerabilidade de cada informação, por meio da álgebra de mapas. Como resultado, destaca-se as unidades estáveis com predomínio dos processos formadores do solo, e as unidades moderadamente vulneráveis, prevalecendo os processos erosivos. Nas unidades em que predominou a vulnerabilidade natural, sugere-se especial atenção em relação ao meio natural e aos agentes que o influenciam, visando boas práticas sociais associadas às políticas ambientais no processo de tomada de decisões econômicas, possibilitando a valorização e proteção do meio.

Extensive urbanization around the world has resulted in the consumption of massive vegetated areas and natural resources. To this end, one strategy for urban development is to consolidate urban areas. In Balneário Camboriú/SC, Brazil, this trend has transformed the city into a vertical built-up area on its coastal strip, accommodating a large amount of buildings both in terms of quantity and number of floors. This research aims to quantify the thermo-hygrometric fluctuation on the waterfront of Balneário Camboriú, in negative radiation balance. To acquire the data on air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (RH), two mobile transects and measuring at two fixed points were made in a situation of negative radiation balance on 26 August 2019, in the winter period of the Southern Hemisphere. The collection work began at 06:00:00 a.m. (before sunrise, the peak of the negative radiation balance), on Atlântica Avenue (waterfront) and Brasil Avenue (parallel to the waterfront). It was verified that the Ta varied from 16.0 °C to 19.0 °C, and the RH remained over 80% during the entire route. At the meteorological shelters, the temperature presented a variation from 14.4 °C to 17.7 °C, and the RH ranged from 79.6% to 91.3% between the two points. The spatial variability in the Ta and RH along the paths travelled and at the fixed points is directly related to the land cover, represented especially by the buildings’ verticalization and data collection time.

Marsh is a wetland type characterized by hydromorphic soils, herbaceous vegetation, aquatic and emergent vegetation; usually, the apparent water surface does not exceed 25% of the area. Multi-polarized active remote sensors with different frequencies have characteristics that make them ideal for mapping and delineating marsh areas since they provide information on canopy roughness, vegetation moisture and amount of biomass. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop a method based on multi-frequency radar satellites images to delineate marsh areas using decision tree classification. In order to reach this objective, we sought to answer the following questions: (1) Are L-band SAR images more efficient for marshes delineation than C-band SAR images? (2) Is multi-sensor (L and C-band) integration more accurate for marsh areas delineation than a single sensor? and (3) What are the most efficient channels for marshes delineation? Our findings showed that L-band images present greater proportion correct (PC) for marshes delineation compared to C-band images. However, the greatest PC was found using integration of Alos Palsar 1 and Sentinel 1 satellites images, reaching more than 72% of correctness. Regarding the polarization importance to Alos Palsar 1 image, HVVH presented the highest importance, with 29%, followed by VH and HV polarizations, both with 28%. For Sentinel 1 image, the most important polarization was VH, with 22%, followed by VV + VH that presented 20%. HVVH polarization was the most important in Alos and Sentinel images integration, with 35%, followed by Alos Palsar HV and VH, with 34 and 33%, respectively. Thus, we concluded that the method based on SAR multi-frequency data integration used in this study can be easily applied by other researchers interested in marsh delineation since the radar images used are freely available and can be processed and manipulated in free GIS software.