Historical land-use changes in são gabriel do oeste at the upper taquari river basin

Abstract

Agricultural expansion in uplands of the Pantanal in recent decades suppressed a large fraction of native vegetation. In the case of the municipality of São Gabriel do Oeste (SGO), located in the Upper Paraguay River Basin, the processing of historical Landsat imagery indicates from 1984 to 2013 a relative land cover increase in soybean/corn cropland from 25% to 30% and pasture from 17% to 41%, whereas a decrease in native forest from 57% to 28%. These land-use changes produced several outstanding economic indexes as the per capita gross domestic product (GDP), 48% higher than that of Brazil. The total GDP increased by 259% from 1999 to 2011. Besides, SGO Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.729 in 2010 was about 2% higher than the Brazil’s HDI average. On the other hand, the agricultural development reflected in alterations of major ecohydrological regulations (carbon and water) at the watershed, notwithstanding the economic concentration. Croplands mostly develop in areas of low vulnerability (55%), while almost all of the pasture areas are preferably in vulnerable areas (42%). Due to climate changes, the promotion of state social inclusive and low-carbon agriculture is necessary to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to recover important ecohydrological processes at the drainage basin level. In this chapter, we explore a new sustainable design of agroecosystems (integrated crop-livestock and forestry) in the Upper Taquari River Basin, which can maximize and optimize both the sharing of rural productivity and carbon/water regulations at the watershed.