CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA FRAGILIDADE AMBIENTAL POTENCIAL E EMERGENTE DA BACIA HIDROGRÁFICA DO RIBEIRÃO PARAÍSO (SP).

THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE POTENCIAL AND EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL FRAGILITY IN THE WATERSHED OF RIBEIRAO PARAISO (SP).   ABSTRACT: The present work had the objective of evaluating the Potential and Emergent Environmental Fragility of the watershed of Ribeirao Paraiso, using images of satelites LANDSAT 8 of the year 2016 in a software GIS. This area is of great importance because it has its main upstream springs with 67% participation in the supply for human consumption of the municipality of Sao Manuel-SP, with the development of its economic activities focused on agriculture and livestock. The methodology proposed by Ross (1994, 2012), where he defined the fragility of natural and anthropized environments, with some adaptations to combine some environmental variables, using information plans such as slope, soil, cover and land use. Based on five (5) different levels of ability of these environments to resist degradation, which respond differently to human interventions, ranged from 1 to 5, from weakest to strongest slopes and soils (being very low to very high), or from the most protected to the least protected in the case of land cover and use (being: very high to very low). The integrated analysis of the variables used showed besides the potentialities and limitations, showed too important results on the natural and anthropized environments, defining more fragile areas, needing more attention and allowing orientation for a sustainable development and subsidies to the territory management. KEYWORDS: Land use, environmental variables, geographic space