SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TO IDENTIFY THE LAND USE CAPABILITY

Abstract

The problem addressed is the investigation of the land use capability by the practical importance of understanding the soil physical development associated with the adopted production system and the need for specific management to promote sustainable development. The aim is to understand the genesis of the soil and the land use capability and to identify the specific areas for crop management. The assumptions are that the spatial variability of soil magnetic susceptibility can be used to identify specific management areas with different capacities to soil support; the evolution of the landscape is a standard indicator of spatial variability of soil attributes, including the magnetic susceptibility, and can be used as a criterion for planning land uses; the hydrological compartments are differentiate by the magnetic susceptibility values and landscape evolution stages. If successful, the benefits will result in potential indicators of values of judicial or administrative decisions on the future of land use in hydrological compartments based on the spatial variability of the magnetic susceptibility and the evolution of the landscape. The study area is in the Midwest Region of São Paulo State and the evaluated attributes of the magnetic susceptibility, soil texture and fertility in 600 soil samples will be conducted in order to check the variances considering the distance from samples in regionalized variables with fundamentals of geostatistics, remote sensing and geographic information systems, where continuous phenomena in space and time will be studied. As a result, it will generate a proposal for land use indicators in hydrological compartments, which will serve as a technical and scientific advice on forest management and conservation of the land and land use policy. Shall be drawn up thematic maps of the stages of evolution of the landscape, the magnetic susceptibility, and of land use conflict and land use supportability. The project has the support of the international UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real - Portugal, by the coordination of Prof. Fernando António Leal Pacheco.