Assessment of physical sensibilty of the Goiapaba- açú reserve, Fundão city

contributions to the environmental zonning

Abstract

The Espírito Santo mountain region has presented many possibilities to its land use but human activities are conducting to the fast degradation of its natural resources limiting another possibilities of exploration like tourism in natural areas. This study aims to investigate about the sensibility of the physical substrate (geology and geo- morphology) of the Environmental Protection Area (APA) of Goiapaba-Açú, located in Fundão city, Espírito Santo state, Brazil. Another question was how the changes in natural coverage could affect the degradation of this region. These data will be used to help in environmental zoning of this area that forms an important corridor of Atlantic Forest and contributes to the provisioning of water to Grande Vitória metropolitan region. The results obtained using geoprocessing technichies demonstrate the predominance of soils like Latosoils and the occurrence of dangerous geologic e geomorphologic configurations in significative extension. Forest vegetation recover about 89% of the landscape in the APA, but there are many areas with silvicultural uses. By the combining of the informations, the area was separated in eight classes of sensibility, taking into account the fragility of the physical substrate and the kind of vegetational cover. The results indicate that the area needs of environmental policies pointed to the conservation, re- specting its natural fragilities.