Land use and land cover map of a semiarid region of Brazil for meteorological and climatic models

An updated vegetation cover and land use map over a semiarid region of Brazil has been produced at a 1 km spatial resolution, using satellite data and remote sensing techniques, for application in climate modeling. The map presents the location and distribution of major vegetation types and non-vegetated land surface formations for the Northeast Brazil Region, which includes the semiarid region. In this study, Radambrasil and IBGE vegetation maps, a digital mosaic of ETM+ Landsat 7, and TM Landsat 5 images from the period 1999-2000 were used. To update the map, the techniques of segmentation and unsupervised classification (ISOSEG) were applied. A total of 7 land cover and land use categories were mapped according to the "Simplified Simple Biosphere"(SSiB) model legend. This map shows that there has been a considerable increase in agricultural activities and pasture area. The vegetation in this region is an intricate combination of different life forms (e.g., trees and shrubs forming a closed cover) in this region. The semiarid region of Brazil is susceptible to desertification due to climatic and environmental conditions. This updated map should provide important input for regional stratification in climate studies