Land cover and characteristics of surface temperatures and normalized difference vegetation index in the São Paulo-Paraná-Mato Grosso do Sul Division

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the changes in land cover in the São Paulo-Paraná- Mato Grosso do Sul dividing line following the formation of lakes for the generation of energy from hydropower plants, considering the years 2001 and 2021, in addition to verify how the transformations in the landscape affected the vegetation cover and surface temperatures. To do this, images from the Landsat 7 and 8 satellites were used, as well as maps of land cover, and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and surface temperatures were generated in order to analyze vegetation interference on the target temperatures. Among the available images, those that were suitable for this type of study (without cloud cover) were chosen on representative days of the dry season, taken on August 3, 2001, and on August 18, 2021, as well as of the rainy season, taken on February 7, 2021. The results showed that, even with minor changes in land cover in the period from 2001 to 2021, the decrease in vegetative vigor, as confirmed by the NDVI, in the dry period resulted in an increase in areas with higher target temperatures. It also showed that the spatial variability of surface temperatures in the São Paulo-Paraná-Mato Grosso do Sul dividing line does not depend solely on the transformations in the landscape but is rather directly related to the types of weather that provide greater or lesser precipitation totals in the period prior to the obtaining of the images. Therefore, it was demonstrated that changes in land cover alone do not respond to the variability and intensity of surface temperatures.