Proposta metodológica para elaboração de um indicador de fragilidade ambiental para fragmentos florestais

The expansion of human activities resulted in the loss of almost 88% of the original forest cover of the Atlantic Forest, driving the fragmentation process and the loss of habitat, the main causes of fauna and flora extinction. Therefore, this article aimed to develop a methodology for identifying priority forest fragments for environmental protection actions in a hydrographic basin with strong anthropic action. The indicator elaborated had as scope an evaluation of the parameters related to the shape, use of fragment and quality of vegetation health. For this, the Circularity Index (CI), the Edge Effect Index (EEI) and the Fragment Biophysical Quality Index (FBQI) were created. From the integration of these three indices, the Forest Fragility Indicator (FFI) was created. The Hierarchical Process Analysis (HPA) method was applied to assign weights related to the importance of each index in the IFF construction process. The results obtained were 27 forest fragments studied, only 01 fragment was considered with low fragility, 22 with medium fragility and 04 with high forest fragility. It is possible to indicate which FFI results show the type of land use adjacent to the forest fragments or the main factor in relation to the others. Finally, a model that uses spatial data and HPA can be quite useful and determine priority areas for the management and conservation of forest remnants, which can be replicated to other river basins.