Coastal Land Use in Northeast Brazil: Mangrove Coverage Evolution Over Three Decades

It is essential to monitor both the mangrove coverage and the encroachment of anthropogenic activities to assess the evolution of these highly valuable and threatened ecosystems. Using the grid technique, Landsat images of three estuaries in Pernambuco, northeast Brazil, were analyzed to track chang...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tropical conservation science 2019-01, Vol.12 (1)
Main Authors: Pelage, Latifa, Domalain, Gilles, Lira, Alex S, Travassos, Paulo, Frédou, Thierry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anthropic threats
Anthropogenic factors
Climate change
Encroachment
Environmental changes
Estuaries
Evolution
grid technique
Human influences
Land use
Landsat
Landsat satellites
mangrove
Mangrove swamps
Mangroves
Remote sensing
Salinization
Satellite imagery
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Summary:It is essential to monitor both the mangrove coverage and the encroachment of anthropogenic activities to assess the evolution of these highly valuable and threatened ecosystems. Using the grid technique, Landsat images of three estuaries in Pernambuco, northeast Brazil, were analyzed to track changes in land use over the past three decades. This study is the first time the grid technique has been used as a precise method to quantify and localize the mangrove coverage changes at local scale. We found that the technique was a synthetical and cost-effective way of observing land-use changes over the study period, and its precision was evident for local-scale study. An increasing trend of mangrove coverage was observed and can be related to the salinization. This increase in salinization is a result of anthropogenic activities and climate change. We also found that differences in geometrical properties influenced the spatiotemporal patterns of mangroves. To mitigate adequately the negative impacts induced by anthropization and climate change, the characteristics of mangrove forest configuration and human activities should therefore both be considered.
ISSN:1940-0829
1940-0829
DOI:10.1177/1940082918822411