Dynamics of Land Use and Occupation in Areas of Expansion of the Agricultural Boundary in the Palmeira’s River Low Course, Tocantins State

Abstract

The socioeconomics system imposes alterations to the dynamics of land use and occupation. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the dynamics of land use and occupation, over 49 years (1968-2017), in the Southern sector of the Palmeira’s River watershed, highlighting elements of the socioeconomic system and its relations with processes of change over the hydrography and the developed relief over limestone lithology. The low course sector of the Palmeira’s River watershed has 446.84km2 and it was selected as representative fragment of the regional environmental changes. For the area, mapping of land use and occupation (1968 and 2017) and geomorphological (1968) were performed, both on the 1:25,000; and fieldwork to validate of data. The results allowed the verification of changes in the region hydrography, with the construction of dams for cattle water consumption and for reservoirs for power generation through creation of a small hydroelectric plant; reduction of the savannah areas, which occupied 77,46% of the area in the year 1968 and occupy 22,65% in 2017; and increased pasture areas, which occupy 56,01% of the area in 2017, compared to 0,09% in 1968, that occurs extensively, and in some sectors, on karst relief, which are being demeaned little by little. Thus, this research enabled the supply of parameters for a general diagnostic of the changes occurred in the area, in addition to contributing with discussions regarding the controls imposed by the socioeconomic system to the physical systems in areas of agricultural expansion in the Northern Region of Brazil.