Natural Cover suppression patterns used in PRODES Caatinga mapping

Abstract. Since 2022, we have mapped native vegetation removal for all Brazilian biomes within the scope of the PRODES Project. In this study, our main objective was to present interpretation criteria for feature detection used to identify natural vegetation removal throughout the Caatinga. To this end, we created a catalog of typical patterns that can be used for supervised and unsupervised deforestation mapping. We used PRODES data from 2023 year's PRODES Caatinga based on the composition of top of atmosphere (TOA) reflectance images from MSI/Sentinel-2 satellite. The original reflectance data was used to generate false color images in the following combination: band 8 (Red), band 11 (Green) and band 4 (Blue). This image was then visually classified into different natural vegetation removal classes. These are good examples of what PRODES interpreters have encountered throughout this diverse region and can help any future mapping efforts of the Caatinga.