Imagens CBERS para o estudo de manguezais do Brasil aplicações, potencialidades e limitações

Abstract

Abstract. Brazil shows the third largest world mangrove area, but the increase of anthropogenic pressures has been leading to high loss of these forests. This highlights the need for synoptic, multiscale and multitemporal studies of Brazilian mangroves by the use of remote sensing tools. For this purpose, the CBERS (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite) images are valuable tools. In this paper we presented and discussed features, applications, potentialities and limitations of the CBERS-2 and 2B images from sensors IRMSS, CCD and HRC for the study of Brazilian mangroves. For a case study, images of these three sensors of the coastal zone of Sergipe State (Northeast Brazil) were processed in GIS. The use of CBERS images allows the identification (IRMSS), mapping, area quantification, change detection, identification of types of mangroves stands, analysis of canopy closure and biomass estimate (CCD) and extraction of detailed information about mangrove coverage (HRC). The selection of the most appropriate sensor for a particular mangrove study should mainly occur by the scale of analysis. The joint use of the three sensors is suitable for micro-region studies, since this approach offers a range of supplementary information, which is not possible to obtain using images of a single sensor.