Author(s): SANO, E. E.; ROSA, R.; BRITO, J. L. S.; FERREIRA, L. G.

Summary: ABSTRACT: Mapping Cerrado's vegetation cover is difficult because of its geographical extemt (~ 204,7 million hectares), high seasonality, and high spatial and temporal dynamics of its land use activities. The objective of this study was to map the vegetation cover of the Cerrado biome in the 1:250,000 scale using Landsat satellite imageries from the year of 2002. The following classes of land use were considered: croplands, planted pasturelands, reforestations, urban settlements and mining areas. For natural vegetation classes, we used the Brazilian System of Vegetation Classification, developed by the IBGE - Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. The methodological approach involved segmentation of the Landsat imagery, followed by the visual association of the resultant segments with thematic mapping classes of the study area. Based on such semi-automatic approach, we estimated a 61.5 % of natural vegetation cover in the Cerrado. This percentage varied greatly depending upon the region in this biome; from less than 10 % in the south to higher than 90 % in the north of Cerrado.

Publication year: 2007

Types of publication: Booklets

Unit: Embrapa Cerrados

Keywords: Cerrado, Geoprocessamento, Geoprocessing, Imagem, Land cover mapping, Landsat, Mapa, Satélite, Sensoriamento Remoto, remote sensing