Geoprocessing applied to marine shrimp farming in São José do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Considering the rapidly developing aquaculture in the world, is increasingly necessary to use methods aimed at the selection of potential sites for a variety of aquaculture activities Thus, the present study in order to define areas suitable for the development of marine shrimp earth ponds culture in the lower estuary of the Patos Lagoon, southern Brazil. We used Landsat 7 image ETM+ satellite, 221-082 point-orbit of 24/10/2001, with the combination of bands 1, 2 and 3. Spatial analysis was performed with the software Idrisi Andes Edition® (ver. 15.01-Clark University). The areas were selected from the exclusion of legally protected areas, followed by attractiveness multicriteria analysis, considering for example the opportunity cost and distance from infrastructure, among others. As a result, a total of 5,300 hectares (16.84%) were considered most attractive, while 14,600 hectares (46.78%) are considered in good conditions. Thus, it should be noted that the areas considered enabling a high potential and smaller investment in the construction of farms (hours/machine).