Sentinel-2 imagery usage on environmental monitoring of land use and occupation in a microwatershed in Central Brazil

Abstract

In the last decades, sustainability concerns have increased the demand for projects and strategic plans that integrate economic and social aspects, reducing environmental impacts. In this sense, this study aims to monitor land-use adequacy in the Ribeirão Extrema microwatershed, Distrito Federal, based on cross-mapping between land-use and occupation in 2019 and agricultural aptitude map through Geographic Information Systems and Remote sensing. To this end, a hypsometric and thematic database was prepared for the region. Besides, we acquired an image from the Sentinel-2 orbital sensor of October 2019. The image was subjected to classification regarding land-use and occupation, using the MAXVER (maximum likelihood) algorithm. It was observed that 80% of use in 2019 was related to agricultural activities. Kappa index validation reached 81% accuracy. Based on the methodology, we identified 62.33% of agricultural activities occur into its capacity; 4.33%, were used above capacity, causing environmental degradation, especially in permanent preservation areas. The application of the technique was considered satisfactory because the adequacy of land-use in the studied microwatershed could be assessed in order to pursue sustainable development. Continuous analyzes can improve results.