Análisis espacio temporal de la dinámica de cambio de uso de suelo y cobertura vegetal de la microcuenca del río Chibunga en la provincia de Chimborazo

Abstract

The main objective of this research thesis was to determine the changes in land use and existing vegetation cover between 2001 and 2016 as a result of the different anthropogenic activities in the study area. The methodology applied by means of geographic information systems allowed carrying out this analysis, together with the use of Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images, with which it was possible to define and quantify the changes in existing coverage in the micro-watershed. Also, to perform this analysis, ArcGis 10.5 software was used, where the supervised classification process was applied in order to create maps of land use and existing vegetation cover in the study area, both for the year 2001 and 2016, likewise these results were complemented with the determination of gains and losses for each type of cover, thus obtaining that the greatest losses were in soils without cover with 17. 73%, followed by forests with losses of 1.22%, likewise for snow, losses of around 0.07% were identified, while for water bodies a loss of 0.04% was evidenced. On the other hand, in the case of coverage gains, it was identified that pastures increased by 6.95%, followed by populated areas with 6.67%, in the case of moorlands there was a 4.83% growth and finally the coverage of agricultural mosaics increased by 0.61%. Similarly, the evolution of vegetation cover and land use was identified within the years 2001 and 2016 through NDVI analysis, for the case of 2001 the values 0.591 to -0.473, while for 2016 the resulting values range from 0.638 to -0.145. Indicating the presence of bare soil or bare soil for both years, but with the difference that for the year 2016 the vegetation covers increased in the area of the micro-watershed. Finally, based on the results obtained together with the respective bibliographic research of the historical evolution of the area, it was concluded that the different anthropogenic activities carried out in the area do interfere in the natural state of the Chibunga River micro-watershed.