CARTOGRAFIA DE PAISAGENS:

uma proposta metodológica para identificação de áreas sujeitas à restrição de uso com vistas à proteção dos recursos hídricos na UGRH Paranapanema, Brasil

Abstract

This article aims to present a methodological proposal for the identification of areas subject to usage restrictions, with a focus on the protection of water resources—one of the mandatory contents of Water Resources Plans, as established by Brazil's National Water Resources Policy-, based on the study of landscape in the Paranapanema Water Resources Management Unit (UGRH Paranapanema). To this end, environmental planning studies of river basins and landscape analysis, based on the theoretical and methodological foundations of Landscape Geoecology, landscape cartography, support from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with a view to using landscape diagnosis to identify areas subject to usage restrictions. For this research, a survey and bibliographic review of concepts, legislation, documents, reports and water resources plans, as well as the treatment and data processing and information and the use of GIS tools to create landscape cartography, which contributed to the definition of the proposal for areas subject to use restrictions, aiming to protect water resources in the UGRH Paranapanema. Indicators were applied for landscape diagnostics, such as: diversity, uniqueness, naturalness, geoenvironmental fragility, and criticality of  the quality and quantity of water resources, which were later integrated into an aggregated index, referred to as the Landscape Index for Watershed Management, which allowed the identification of areas with Very High, High, Medium, Low, and Very Low priority for watershed management, highlighting the areas of Very High and High priority as the areas subject to restricted use, with a view to protecting water resources, to be considered in the UGRH Paranapanema.