Impact of the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the land cover and use: study of the basin Lajeado Bonito - RS

This work aims to analyze the impact of the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on land cover and use in Lajeado Bonito-RS watershed. The study evaluated the temporal evolution of land cover and use in the watershed for the period before and after to installation of hydroelectric plant Foz do Chapeco (2009 to 2010). For temporal analysis, two images were interpreted, one orbital image of High Resolution Camera (HRC) onboard of the CBERS-2B, acquired in December 29, 2009. And a high-resolution image obtained from Google Earth application, acquired at December 26, 2010. The land cover and use maps were generated by vector editing SPRING software. We found that the predominant land use related to agriculture and livestock, including bare soil. In 2009 this class accounted for 70.23% of the total area, while it come to represent 61.8% in 2010. At the same time, there was increase of areas with native forest cover, from 27.49% covered by forest in 2009, to 31% in 2010. The results showed that in both 2009 and 2010 years, approximately 49% of permanent preservation area were used inappropriately. (author)