Mapping of areas susceptible to mass movements in the municipality of Camaragibe, Pernambuco

Abstract

The growing urbanization of Recife has led the population to occupy peripheral regions, leading to a housing demand in neighboring cities, leading to an unplanned expansion, aggravated by the inadequacy of buildings constructed in the presence of technical support, thus configuring all the elements of risk, threat, vulnerability and exposure. Thus, the present study aims to map the areas of susceptibility to gravitational mass movement in the municipality of Camaragibe, Metropolitan Region of Recife, Pernambuco, through one of the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Methods, the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), in conjunction with Geographic Information System (GIS). For this purpose, six factors conditioning the occurrence of gravitational mass movements were selected and manipulated in the QGIS software, reclassified and subjected to map algebra. Thus, a map of susceptibility to gravitational mass movements was prepared for the region studied, in which it was identified that the regions most susceptible to these processes are those with high slopes and altitudes, concave vertical curvatures, clayey soils and proximity to water bodies. The use of this method proved to be a feasible option in terms of effectiveness and usefulness, emerging as a possibility for leaders and experts in the field to make more accurate choices.