”BETWEEN PLATEAUS AND BADLANDS”: LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMATION AND AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION AT GILBUÉS-PIAUÍ

Abstract

At Gilbués, cerrados are characterized by an extensive flat topography, which facilitates the expansion of mechanized agriculture. Other regions present areas known as badlands, which undergo intense erosive processes caused by climatic and morpho-psychological characteristics. The objective herein is to analyze land cover and use dynamics, emphasizing landscape aspects, the appropriation process, social and environmental transformations and socioeconomic arrangements, as well as their articulation with eroded lands in the municipality of Gilbués, southwestern Piauí. Four distinct and complementary steps were necessary for the development of this study: a bibliographical review, field work, graph construction and analysis and the compilation of thematic maps built using remote sensing and geoprocessing techniques. As results, the study elucidates the occurrence of intense erosive processes in south-central Gilbués and the expansion of mechanized agriculture in cerrado areas in the northern sector. The temporal analysis carried out in 1987 and 2009 indicates changes in land cover and use dynamics, such as the agricultural expansion in dense cerrado areas, leading to vegetation cover removal in the northern region and increased productivity of exposed soil, resulting in erosive badland-type features. This study allowed for an understanding of socioeconomic trajectories and dynamics and their influence on landscape transformations, as well as an evaluation of the importance of the natural configurations that favored the implementation of agricultural activities.