Identificação das áreas de fragilidade ambiental no núcleo urbano do município de Pilar, Alagoas

Abstract

The development of society has always relied on the use of resources obtained from nature. The recent technological expansion, combined with widely spread habits of life and consumption, has led to an accelerated demand for natural resources, resulting in serious environmental issues. In the municipality of Pilar, located in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, this situation is no different, particularly observed in the disorderly growth of its urban core, which has caused environmental degradation through observed transformations such as erosion processes due to the absence of riparian vegetation, deforestation, sand extraction by dredging, discharge of untreated domestic sewage, among other environmental aggravating factors. Faced with this problem, the study aimed to characterize the areas that are prone to environmental fragility in the urban core of the municipality, considering the almost nonexistent studies for the area. The general objective of the study is to identify areas of environmental fragility in the urban core of the municipality. The study was based on the methodology of ecotope dynamics or ecodynamics proposed by Tricart (1977), complemented by the guidelines of Ross (1994) and improved by Oliveira (2017), with the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method by Saaty (1980) in the distribution of weights for each variable. In the study of potential environmental fragility, four classes of fragility were identified and mapped: low, medium, high, and very high. The analysis of environmental fragility revealed the spatial distribution of different degrees of fragility, considering the impacts of human activities and their interaction with the natural environment. It was observed that low and very low fragility are more extensive in the urban core of Pilar, occupying the majority of environments within the stable plateaus. In conclusion, the study of potential and environmental fragility, along with the analysis of land use and occupation and their anthropogenic actions, provides essential support for decision-making related to environmental management and sustainable development of the municipality, particularly its urban core.