Research on desertification in Brazil: scenarios and perspectives

Abstract

The desertification has been considered for many researchers and environmentalists as one of the most serious environment problem of the present time, effecting the politic, economic, social, cultural and the environment itself. The objective of the present work is to promote the understanding of the desertification research scenario in the last five years in Brazil, emphasizing the studied areas. For such work, it's been selected papers in annals events, among the years 2002-2007, that treat the desertification directly. The data systemization was made by tools from the Excel, whom allowed to build graphs, which relate the research institution whom the first author work, year of occurrence, event kind and area of knowledge of the event. Tried, with this study, to identify the common between the studies areas and the whole space in process of desertification. The map with the space delimitation of the occurrence, by region, it was elaborated in SIG Are View 3.2 ATM ambience, and the database was got in IBGE (2001). The final information was showed as thematic graphs and a map which delimitated the study focus areas. ln agreement with the results, among 2002 -2007, 24 papers about desertification it was publish in eight events, stand out the Remote Sensing Symposium as the one whom publish the bigger number of papers about the theme. Of the works, 76% of the study areas are concentrated in the Northeast area and 24% in the Southeast area (Minas Gerais north area), presenting similarities comparatively regarding the area of the occurrences, in concern of the characteristic of the works in relation to the physical factors, such as climate, soil, rain and main vegetation.