CELLULAR AUTOMATA MODEL – LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS SIMULATION TOOL IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN LAND USE AND COVER IN THE CITY OF GAÚCHA DO NORTE – MT

Abstract. The factors that contribute to land use change in the municipality of Gaúcha do Norte - MT, are entirely linked to the economic process and agricultural production. This process has left Brazil in a state of alert due to the process of deforestation and loss of tropical forests. From 2000 to 2010, the forest areas converted into agriculture accounted for 13.3%, the main factor that directly potentiated with deforestation was the cultivation of soybeans, which in turn was occupying places previously occupied by livestock and pushing the livestock forest inside. The phenomena of land use change and land cover start from multidimensional issues in the environmental and economic context. The use of environmental modeling through cellular automata to analyze land use change phenomena and reproduce the trajectory through future land use simulations and evolution establishes an integration associated by mathematical models and flow integration systems. That predict the trajectory of land use change, thus generating a dynamic model capable of predicting future land use changes by replicating possible patterns of landscape evolution and enabling assessments of future ecological implications for the environment.