@Article{VieiraTBPOSFT:2021:LaDeMa,
               author = "Vieira, Rita M{\'a}rcia da Silva Pinto and Tomasella, Javier and 
                         Barbosa, Alexandre Augusto and Polizel, Silvia Palotti and Ometto, 
                         Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud and Santos, Fabr{\'{\i}}cia Cristina 
                         and Ferreira, Yara da Cruz and Toledo, Peter Mann de",
          affiliation = "{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Centro 
                         Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais 
                         (CEMADEN)} and {Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} 
                         and {Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and 
                         {Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto 
                         Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto Nacional de 
                         Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas 
                         Espaciais (INPE)}",
                title = "Land degradation mapping in the MATOPIBA region (Brazil) using 
                         remote sensing data and decision-tree analysis",
              journal = "Science of the Total Environment",
                 year = "2021",
               volume = "782",
                pages = "e146900",
                month = "Aug.",
             abstract = "The expansion of agricultural activities in Brazil resulted in a 
                         loss of approximately 50% of the native vegetation of the Cerrado 
                         biome, mainly to the north of the biome in a region known as 
                         MATOPIBA. Besides contributing to accelerate climate change, the 
                         removal of native vegetation is associated with increase soil 
                         degradation. In this study, we used the decision tree method to 
                         predict degradation using as indicators Normalized Difference 
                         Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived indices over the period 19852018. 
                         Results showed that approximately 4677 km2 (0.63%) of MATOPIBA 
                         region is under strong signs of degradation, mostly on pasture and 
                         grasslands areas, commonly used for grazing. Although the 
                         percentage of degraded areas is relatively small, the mapping 
                         indicated that the majority of degradation patches are 
                         concentrated not only in areas of low resilience, e.g., areas 
                         dominated by weakly structured sandy soils, but also where highly 
                         stable latosols dominate. More importantly, these areas were 
                         frequently affected by fire over the study period. This finding 
                         suggests that the combination of unsustainable traditional land 
                         management practices, such as fire, the replacement of forest by 
                         pasture, and anthropic activities such as inadequate road 
                         planning, are the main factor that trigger degradation processes 
                         in this Brazilian region. The study results are important for 
                         decision makers for defining investment priorities for 
                         conservation and for the recovery of degraded areas.",
                  doi = "10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146900",
                  url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146900",
                 issn = "0048-9697",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "vieira_land.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "02 maio 2024"
}