Uso del suelo y grado de cobertura vegetal en una cuenca del centro de la provincia de Buenos Aires

Abstract

The agricultural land use and the degree of vegetal cover are important parameters to consider the potentiality of runoff and erosion in a basin and, in addition, to evaluate the development of crops, production, etc. In this work the variation of the land use and the vegetal cover throughout a year (April of 2005 until March of 2006) in a cattle agricultural river basin of the center of the Buenos Aires province, Argentina, is evaluated. This annual cycle, while modifications of productive structure of the zone do not take place, can be valid for many years. In order to obtain the desired objective, techniques of digital processing of satellite images and GIS are used. Thus the land use is determined by means of nonsupervised classification of the images. Then, to each use a percentage of cover is assigned according to field measurements and to the phenologic state, in the case of crops. 12 land use categories throughout the year are obtained, to which lagoons, rock outcrops and forest are added. The results show minor degrees of cover in winter, with a minimum of 66 % in September, and then grow until to reach a maximum of 92 % in February and March, in the apogee of the cultures of soybean and maize.