ABSTRACT
The following research has as main objective to analyse the enviromental degradation
through the land use systems in Independência city in the State of Ceará, Brazil. For
such the enviromental degradation is understood as the derivations produced in the
enviroment, starting from the use of the land with inadequate handlings, being
represented by the decrease of the economic and productive potencial of the areas,
the reduction of the availability and the production of damages to the natural resources,
as well as the harmful of the dynamic ecological cycles. As analysis plan it was
proposed Independência city, located in the Microrregião de Planejamento Sertão de
Crateús. Independência along with Tauá and Arneiroz cities are the second ot the three
desertification nucleus from Ceará State, the Desertification Nucleus Sertão do
Inhamuns. According to surveys done previously for the studying area, Independência
is inside the debate about the enviroment derivations resulting from the relation
between the social and natural enviroment presents a very complex structure,
maintaining the evidences of the occupation of sertões (backwoods) from the colonial
period and from the diffusion of productive activities such as extensive livestock
farming and the agroextractivism. For the theoretical contribution of the research, we
inserted discussions about the enviromental analysis applied to the integrated studying
of the degradation for the Geography Science, reflections about the conception of the
enviromental degradation theoretical methodological problem of the definition of
desertification and the importance of the sucessor areas of caatinga for the
comprehension of the degradation. It was very important to the research the
applicability of geotechnologies for the apprehension of the enviroment studied, more
specifically those related to the geoprocessing and to the remote sensing of
vegetation.The methodological articulation between geobotanical surveys also
subsidized the study of environmental degradation from the floristic inventories in the
caatinga of the Independência city, state of Ceará, and the filling of a data gap to
understand the dynamics of environments, from the systemic perspective, with
emphasis on biogeography. From this it was possible to contribute initially to the
understanding of the degradation processes of the area in question, generating data
and information that subsidize the productive and sustainable use of natural resources.
Thus, it is indicated at the end of the study that the degraded areas of the
Independência city are capable of recolonization of species and carrying the
installation of successive phases of the caatinga, inducing the environmental recovery,
taking into account that the environment is dynamic, and the degradation is not
degraded. static end for nature nor the economic irreversibility for the semi-arid Region
of Northeastern Brazil.
Key-words: Independência. Degradation. Desertification. Ecological succession.
Biogeography.
