In recent years there is a growing concern about the quality and sustainable use of natural resources, especially soil and water due to the increase of human activities; thus, the current study has as purpose to evaluate and to compare chemical changes in seven areas with different usage time with banana in Irrigation Project Baixo Açú, RN, in relation to native vegetation 'Caatinga'. Each of the cultivated areas have 8 ha, twenty soil samples were collected in each area to form a composite sample and in the area of ??native forest also twenty samples were collected to estimate the mean and standard deviation. The characteristics studied were calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, pH and EC as well as the heavy metals lead, nickel, cadmium, copper, zinc, manganese and iron. The results showed a close inverse relationship between soil quality and intensity of use that areas were submitted, and that the method used to analyse the quality of the soil has shown changes in cultivated areas in relation to native forest, reducing the environmental quality index over time, being less than 0.5 from the fifth year of cultivation.
mathematical model; environmental quality index; environmental sustainability
