GEOSYSTEMIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DOMAIN OF THE CERRADO

subsidies for landscape analysis

Abstract

The work aims to delimit, characterize, map and analyze the Geosystems in the Brazilian Cerrado domain. The methodology that served to achieve the proposed objective was structured in two stages: (i) bibliographical research for theoretical-methodological basis; (ii) manipulation, processing and processing of data in a GIS environment. The physical-natural parameters chosen for the study were: relief compartments, phytophysiognomies and climatic elements (classification of annual precipitation distribution and annual average temperature). The Geosystems were defined from the five relief compartments: Plains, Plateaus and Tablelands, Depressions, Plateaus and Patamares and Mountains and from the three phytophysiognomic typologies: Savannah, Steppic Savannah and Contact (transition areas between different biomes). The annual precipitation distributions were grouped into Super-wet (no drought/subdry), Wet (1 to 3 dry months), Semi-wet (4 to 5 dry months), and Semi-arid (6 to 8 dry months). The annual temperature averages were classified as Hot (>18ºC) and Subhot (between 15ºC and 18ºC). From the results and the integration of the proposed physical-natural factors, twenty-one (21) geosystems were delimited, which were named according to the relevant relief compartment, inserting in sequence the information of the climatic elements, finally, the phytophysiognomy. The Cerrado domain is mostly characterized by the phytophysiognomy of Savanna (60%), where the Depressions, Chapadas and Tablelands add up to 79% of the area and the average temperatures vary from Sub-Hot to Hot, changing in zones where the distribution of annual averages of precipitation varies in the northeast as semiarid and in the southeast, south and southwest portions they classify as humid and in contact with the Amazon domain to the north and northwest, defended as super-humid.