Cloud-based application for generate spatial and statistical data about environmental fragility and land cover

Abstract

Mainly occurring in tropical forests, deforestation is a worldwide environmental threat, particularly considering associated factors of climate change and loss of biodiversity. The Brazilian MapBiomas project developed a free and open-source platform to monitor Brazilian land cover changes since 1985. To increase its analytic power with respect to land cover changes, we developed an Environmental Fragility Mapping System (EFMS), using Google Earth Engine (GEE). Environmental fragility (EF) analysis has its origins in ecodynamics, and it is composed of potential environmental fragility (PEF) and emergent environmental fragility (EEF), arising from the effects of land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes on PEF. The main advantage of EF analysis over LULC analysis is its flexibility in evaluating multiple scenarios for different aspects of environmental challenges. In EFMS, we calculate three environmental fragility indexes: (i) potential fragility index (PFI), (ii) land cover fragility index (LCFI), and (iii) emergent fragility index (EFI). Combined with LULC change analysis from the MapBiomas Project, EFMS can provide spatial analysis and generate maps and data for environmental management.