THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DESERTIFICATION IN THE SEDIMENTARY PORTION OF APODI-MOSSORÓ
RIVER HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN, RN, BRAZIL
Keywords: Desertification; Desertification Indicators; Hydrographic basin; Apodi-Mossoró River; Geoenvironmental analysis
Desertification is configured as a process of serious environmental degradation, likely to occur in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid climate zones on planet Earth. Since the second half of the 20th century, it has been addressed in the scientific and diplomatic debate within the scope of the United Nations, in the conferences that make up its international environmental agenda. In Brazil, this degradation has the most favorable territory for its occurrence in the Brazilian semi-arid region, including the existence of desertification nuclei, which are areas where degradation has reached its ecumene. The causes are socio-environmental, linked to a fragility of the territory's natural conditions and the intense use of resources, especially with agropastoral activities. At the national level there is recognition of this problem in scientific research, and at the institutional level with action programs to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of droughts. For these reasons, the dissertation that is intended to qualify has the general objective of analyzing the susceptibility to desertification and its relationship with the uses of the territory in the sedimentary portion of the Apodi-Mossoró river basin. Specifically: to characterize the environmental systems of the sedimentary portion of the Apodi/Mossoró river basin; to identify the history of use and occupation and its relationship with the susceptibility to desertification in the study area and to know the level of susceptibility to desertification in the study area. In order to do so, it is supported by the methodological framework of Bertrand's Geosystem (2004) to carry out an integrated analysis of the landscape in order to know the geoenvironmental conditions of the basin and to support the application of geobiophysical and socioeconomic indicators from a matrix formulated by Abraham and Beeckman. (2006).