Spatial pattern analysis of deforestation in the northeast of Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Abstract

Understanding the spatial pattern of a particular geographic phenomenon such as deforestation is a key issue to establish monitoring programs to prevent the depletion of natural resources. Thus, the goal of this study was to assess the spatial pattern of deforested areas in the Pardo and Jequitinhonha River basins using Ripley’s K function. First, we mapped all deforested areas in these basins using Landsat multispectral imagery from 2007 to 2015. Then, we used the Ripley’s K function to test for spatial interactions between deforestation events. Our results showed that deforestations predominantly occur in a clustering spatial pattern in these basins. Spatial statistical analyses as Ripley’s K function may provide a baseline for deforestation monitoring, as well as allowing us to understand the spatial pattern of deforestation in different natural ecosystems, especially in countries like Brazil, where the territorial dimension presents a great difficulty for the effectiveness of deforestation monitoring.

Key words
spatial point patters; Ripley’s K-function; remote sensing; deforestation