Environmental Zoning in a Context of Strong Pressure from Productivist Agriculture in Brazil’s Northeast: The Case of the Ipojuca River, Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this work was the conceptual elaboration of a proposed zoning based on the concepts of recovery, rehabilitation, and restoration, for the Ipojuca watershed, located in the state of Pernambuco, in the north-eastern region of Brazil. It also sought to bring together a set of technical and normative instruments capable of being articulated in environmental policies that have river restoration as the main exponent of ecological and sustainability criteria. Data from the MapBiomas project, which aims to map the annual land cover and use in Brazil, and rainfall data from the stations located in the study area, were used as a basis for the zoning. From the combination of these databases, three sectors with similar characteristics were established, which served as the basis for the zoning. The overlap shown in these data confirmed the influence of the rainfall pattern on the characteristics of the land cover and pattern of use in each sector, where agricultural activities and urbanisation have played a decisive role in the degradation of water bodies and their bordering environments along the watershed.