Spatial-temporal variation in land use in a coastal watershed under pressure of population growth

Abstract

Population progress is one of the main factors affecting the environment, modifying the natural dynamics of ecosystems. The Camboriu River Basin is located on the southern coast of Brazil and is strongly affected by population growth. This paper aimed to verify the space-time variation in the land use of the Camboriu River Basin by identifying changes in occupation and land use between 1986 and 2017. The rapid environmental assessment protocol was applied using the following parameters: bottom substrate, habitat complexity, backwaters quality, stability of banks, vegetative protection, vegetative cover, vegetative quality, and riparian vegetation presence. The changes in occupation and land use show rapid urbanization with a rise of 9% in 1986 to 24% in 2017. In riparian forest, higher altitude regions of the watershed show better results when compared to lower course regions, which are, thus, reflected in the environmental integrity of the stretches of stream studied. As for the behavior of urban occupation in space, it was verified that it did not occur continuously in comparison with the population, data during the studied period.