Detecting Multitemporal Land Use Changes and Environmental Fragility in a Heterogeneous Brazilian Landscape

Abstract Land Use and Land Cover changes (LULCC) are considered the main drivers that modify the natural environment. Thus, understanding the structure of a landscape, the anthropic actions that affect it, and proposing planning strategies are essential tools for sustainable development. In this context, this work aimed to propose territorial planning for Brotas, Brazil. We assessed 20 years (1999–2019) of land use and applied techniques of potential environmental fragility—PEF (natural) and emergent fragility—EF (influenced by human activities). Our results showed that Brotas’ landscape has been strongly altered, which directly impacted the local environmental fragility, especially with sugarcane advancing over the areas that once was occupied by natural vegetation. On the other hand, naturally fragile areas are mainly where the pedological substrate is of sandy origin and covers areas with greater slope. Naturally fragile areas combined with intense processes of human intervention without studies to guide them may be the main cause of degradation processes in Brotas. Lastly, our findings (i) reinforce that spatializing the landscape fragility can strengthen the planning process and contribute to public management, and (ii) encourage the application of the same model to other areas with landscape heterogeneity and land use conflicts.