Vulnerabilidade natural e ambiental do município de Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

The natural vulnerability of the environment is prone to natural agents like geomorphology, geology, soils and its stability in relation to morphogenesis and pedogenesis. The environmental vulnerability is defined as the susceptibility of the environment to any potential impact caused by human actions. The objectives of this work were the evaluation of the land use at Ponta Pora municipality, located on the border between Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) and Paraguay, as well as the determination of its natural and environmental vulnerability. For this purpose, maps of geology, agricultural suitability, slope, topographic sheets and Landsat TM satellite images were used. The natural vulnerability had average values in 62.8% of the study area, low values in 20.7%, high in 12.8% and very high values in 3.7%. The high values of natural vulnerability corresponded to high values of environmental vulnerability as well. So it has been observed that 75.2% of the municipality, corresponding to about 400,704 ha has high to very high environmental vulnerability. These numbers have been found mainly in areas occupied by pasture and crop lands.