The Cananéia region is one of the last preserved river complex in the São Paulo State: the Lagamar. The dynamics of land occupation in that region has changed in the 80's, with the construction of a bridge linking the Cananéia Island to main land. Agriculture, cattle raising activities and plots of land are taking over the forest land, which are represented by hillside forest, coastal plain forest, "restinga" vegetation and mangroves.
This work detected, identified, quantified and mapped the kinds of land occupation, as well as the evolution of this process, considering periods before and after the construction of the bridge.
The Agência Estado, has been discussing and following up the environmental degradation process in this region and thus it is responsible for this initiative. The Environmental Monitoring Center of the Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research Embrapa-NMA, has interpreted the satellite images of years 1984 and 1993, using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to generate a synthesis map of space-temporal dynamics of occupation in an area of approximately 34,500 ha around Cananéia city.
The used methodology and the obtained results by the NMA team are the basis for elaboration of the Lagamar orbital environmental monitoring.
