Analysis of forest cover changes and trends in the Brazilian semiarid region between 2000 and 2018
- PDF / 3,524,014 Bytes
- 20 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 33 Downloads / 210 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Analysis of forest cover changes and trends in the Brazilian semiarid region between 2000 and 2018 Celso Augusto Guimarães Santos1 · Thiago Victor Medeiros do Nascimento1 · Richarde Marques da Silva2 Received: 14 December 2019 / Accepted: 29 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this study, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was used to obtain and manipulate data products derived from satellite images to quantify the forest cover changes in the Brazilian semiarid region (BSAR) between 2000 and 2018 and analyze the annual loss in this period. The relationships among the cumulative gain, loss, and gain–loss between 2000 and 2012 were also analyzed. The Mann–Kendall (MK) and Sen’s nonparametric methods were applied to identify trends, and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify possible similarities among the patterns of forest cover loss in two nine-year periods (2001–2009 and 2010–2018). In 2000, this semiarid region had a forest cover of 225,412.80 km2, and in 2018, a total loss of 60,769.39 km2 occurred, i.e., a total of approximately 26.96% in 18 years. The largest area loss was observed in 2016, and the smallest was observed in 2002. The MK and Sen’s tests showed an increasing trend in the annual losses in this semiarid region at the 0.004 significance level. The results can aid efforts to identify the areas most affected by forest cover loss and determine the corresponding trends, which could contribute to implementing public policies to raise the awareness level of the local population regarding the preservation of the BSAR and mitigation of deforestation. Keywords Google earth engine · Deforestation · Semiarid region · Trends · Mann–kendall
Introduction Deforestation is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent nonforested land use due to anthropogenic or natural factors (van Kooten and Bulte 2000). Anthropogenic factors mainly include urbanization, agricultural activity, industrial growth, timber trading, and mineral exploration. Natural factors, include spontaneous fires and even natural disasters. According to Araújo Filho et al. (2018), over many centuries, almost 3 billion hectares, or approximately half of the world’s forests, were deforested, mainly due to burning, clearing, or being cut down. In addition, only onefifth of the world’s original forest cover remains today in large undisturbed tracts, and cutting rates have accelerated to approximately 16 million hectares per year. For example, * Celso Augusto Guimarães Santos [email protected] 1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB 58051‑900, Brazil
Department of Geosciences, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB 58051‑900, Brazil
2
from 2000 to 2012, Hansen et al. (2013) mapped approximately 2.3 million k m2 of forest cover loss (trees taller than 5 m) worldwide. Deforestation is a complex process that may differ from place to place. For example, Dewan and Yamaguchi (200
Data Loading...
