ANALYSIS OF LANDSCAPE QUALITY IN THE QUEIMA-PÉ RIVER BASIN, MATO GROSSO

Abstract In thist study, land use and landscape quality were analyzed  in the Queima-Pe river basin, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Land use and landscape quality were identified based on 3 m of spatial resolution images from GeoEye. For land use,  manual segmentation and visual interpretation methods were used. Twelve map classes were identified and semi-perennial crops, temporary crops, pasture and native vegetation were the most significant ones. In terms of land use, the basin area contained 55.83% pasture, 26.06% crops, and 7.49% natural vegetation. Landscape analysis revealed that the study area contained 0.79% lower class, 87.80% medium-class, and 11.40% upper-class quality landscape. Through this analysis was determined predominance of the visual quality characterized as medium class, in the basin area. Keywords:  Geotechnology; land use; environment.