Aplicação do modelo InVEST para qualidade de habitat na bacia hidrográfica do Ribeirão da Ponta Alta, Itapetininga-SP

Abstract

Over time, it became of great interest to understand and monitor human activities in order to prevent them from bringing more impacts to the natural environment. For this, instruments and analysis tools began to be developed and have great potential to assist decision-making in many different situations. In this work, the InVEST habitat quality model was applied in the Ribeirão da Ponta Alta watershed, in Itapetininga-SP, in order to verify the applicability of the model to generate results that allow a diagnosis of the conservation status of the habitats in the area. The land use and land cover data used were obtained through the Mapbiomas platform, and the analysis takes into account the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020. The analyzes were performed using ArcGIS 10.5 and InVEST 3.12.1 software. The results of this study demonstrate that over the years there has been a clear change in the pattern of use and occupation of the watershed, a decline in the quality of habitats, an increase in the rarity of habitats and maintenance of the level of degradation in the area, which was low in all years. Through this study, it was possible to affirm the potential of using the InVEST habitat quality model for diagnosing areas in order to support actions and decision-making focused on conservation. However, the importance of further studies being developed and the use of adequate input data is highlighted.