The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental fragility of Iguaçu River watershed, Paraná. Regarding fragility potential, most watersheds fell under the moderate fragility class (40.47 % of the total), followed by very low (18.83 %), low (16.20 %), high (13.27 %) and very high with only 8.68 %. Concerning emerging fragility, most watersheds again lay within moderate fragility (41.55 %), though in this case low fragility was found in second place (with 40.73 %), followed by very low (7.67 %), high (6.50 %) and very high (0.99 %). Urban areas corresponded to 1.37 % and bodies of water to 1.18 % of the area. From a visual analysis, emerging fragility was observed to be high and very high, when present, followed by flooded areas; thus, demonstrating the importance of considering them in such studies, since they are environments with very unstable structural features including certain soil types, significant erosion from water, among others. The results of certain classes also appeared to depend on the weights given to factors considered as affecting the outcome. When the mean fragility methodology was used, the classes tended to follow a normal distribution, i.e. with a dominant moderate class. Therefore one can conclude that determining the importance of each factor is essential in evaluating environmental fragility, and therefore, weights should be carefully defined for each situation.

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la fragilidad ambiental de la cuenca del río Iguaçu, Paraná. El potencial de la fragilidad, la mayor parte de la cuenca se encuentra en la clase media de la debilidad (40.47 % del total), seguido por la clase muy baja (18,83 %), baja (16,20 %), alto (13,27 %) y muy alta con sólo 8,68 %. En cuanto a la fragilidad emergentes, la mayoría de la taza de nuevo está en la clase media de la debilidad (41,55 %), pero en este caso se encontró que la baja fragilidad en el segundo lugar (con el 40,73 %), seguido de clases muy bajas (7,67 %), alta (6,50 %) y muy alto (0,99 %). Las áreas urbanas corresponden a 1,37 % y los cuerpos de agua a 1,18 % de la superficie. También se observa a partir de análisis visual, las clases de fragilidad emergentes de alta y muy alta, cuando está presente, siguen las zonas de inundación, lo que demuestra la importancia de considerar en este tipo de estudios, ya que son entornos con características estructurales muy inestable debido a los tipos de suelo, la presencia de gran erosión por la fuerza del agua, entre otros. También se observó que el uso de diferentes factores de ponderación considera que afecta el resultado de ciertas clases y que cuando se utiliza la metodología de debilidad promedio de las clases es la tendencia de presentar una distribución normal, es decir, con el dominio de clase media. Por lo tanto, se puede observar que la determinación de la importancia de cada factor es dominante para la evaluación de la fragilidad ecologista, y por lo tanto, una definición de los mismos pesos evaluados para cada condición estudió.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi mapear a área de cobertura florestal no município de Maringá, região norte do Estado do Paraná. Para isso, foram usadas imagens de alta e média resolução do satélite CBERS 2B, sensores HRC e CCD. As imagens foram georreferenciadas e classificadas segundo a vegetação de porte florestal por meio de duas abordagens de classificação digital: uma, baseada nos números digitais ou refletância dos pixels e, outra, classificação orientada ao objeto. Foram calculados os números e áreas dos polígonos, sendo os mesmos separados em classes de tamanho de áreas. Foram construídos mapas temáticos, apontando as classes de tamanho dos fragmentos florestais, e sumarizadas as áreas de cada uma das classes. Verificou-se que o maior número de fragmentos florestais do município de Maringá encontra-se na classe menor que 500 m², ressaltando a importância que os pequenos maciços florestais (TOFs - trees outside the forest) têm na paisagem. Verificou-se uma diferença de 58,44% de área verde, encontrada nas imagens de alta resolução espacial, em relação à de média resolução espacial. Este resultado denota a importância de se utilizar geotecnologias com maior resolução espacial, na detecção de TOFs, em pequenos verdes urbanos e áreas com elevado grau de antropização.

Forest cover of the Maringá municipality, located in northern Parana State, was mapped in this study. Mapping was carried out by using high-resolution HRC sensor imagery and medium resolution CCD sensor imagery from the CBERS satellite. Images were georeferenced and forest vegetation patches (TOFs - trees outside forests) were classified using two methods of digital classification: reflectance-based or the digital number of each pixel, and object-oriented. The areas of each polygon were calculated, which allowed each polygon to be segregated into size classes. Thematic maps were built from the resulting polygon size classes and summary statistics generated from each size class for each area. It was found that most forest fragments in Maringá were smaller than 500 m². There was also a difference of 58.44% in the amount of vegetation between the high-resolution imagery and medium resolution imagery due to the distinct spatial resolution of the sensors. It was concluded that high-resolution geotechnology is essential to provide reliable information on urban greens and forest cover under highly human-perturbed landscapes.