An aerial survey was adapted and used for the first time to elaborate maps of distribution and quantification of vegetation classes in the Pantanal wetland, per sub-region. Sixteen vegetation classes where identified based on phytophysiognomic aspects, the most important being grassland (31.1%), cerradão woodland (22.1%), cerrado (14.3%), marshes (7.4 %), semideciduous forest (4.0%), gallery forest (2.4%) and floating mats (2.4%). These informations can support decisions in the conservation or selection of preserved areas, as well as to help to monitor vegetation over a vast and remote region.
Neotropical savanna; vegetation mapping; wetland; Pantanal Matogrossense