Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Envisonmeat 25 (2022) 100756 Contents lists available at ScienceDizeot Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment journal homepage: vwnw.elsevier.cam/lacate/rsase Spatiotemporal characterization of land cover and degradation in the agreste region of Pernambuco, Brazil, using cloud geoprocessing on Google Earth Engine Maria Vitéria Neves de Melo", Maria Eduarda Goncalves de Oliveira", Gledson Luiz Pontes de Almeida“, Nicoly Farias Gomes", Kenny Ruben Montalvo Morales", Taize Calvacante Santana‘, Patricia Costa Silva, Alex Souza Moraes", Héliton Pandorfi ', Marcos Vinicius da Silva" * porama de és Gradua om Exar Aol, Une adr! rl Pomambuc, Rua Dom Man de Motes, SN, Dol Pas Rec, Prarbcn CED, 5217150, Br "Dyporanens de Bgeharia Api, Unberadate Ed! de Gli Sete Hee de Gos, Coin, rat «begat de Qui, Ursa er url Parsanico, Ra Don Merl de Medeo SN, Do ims, Re Fema, CEP 52171900, Bra ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Koworts ‘The chavectetztion of land use ne and cover (LULO), as wells the kenticaton ofits degradation Castings biome factors aenecessry othe preservation oftheagroecosystem andhelpin deision making. Therefore, Sil eoncervaion ‘heobjectivoftherescarch wasto evaluate the spatial temporal dynamics vegetation cover and zo Google ath engine equation a the Agtestemesoregon ofthe stat of Peralvco, through the leaf arc index (LAD, ‘Vegetation nee 7 tes soll-adjusted vegetation index (SAV, and pasture vegetation cover index (PVC) from Sentinel 2/MSL images ftom the Mulspectal Instrument (MSD sensor and, develop software for automatic cloud processing othe Google Earth Engine (GEE) plvform. Were wed 8 Serine! 2/MSt satelite images (2017-2020), processed in GEE, to aban the SAVI, LAL, and PVC. A plaviomente survey was catied ‘ut for the moath before the egistation ofeach image, fom the Climate Hazards Group IntaRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS). The images were subjected to desripive statistics and Principal component analysis (PCA). The months that comprise the highest rainfall exceeded the accumulated 100 mim. The SAV values ranged fom ~0.2 (00.80, of the LAI between Oand3.a7 m1 > (with sal vegons greater than 3). Regions ofthe low speettal response of LAI and SAVI, conelated ‘with areas of low anf in the sty region, The total vatiance showed 100% epvesentativeness and sanifcanceof the daca forte accunniated in PC2, this denotes how significant che conelations be Tween SAVI, LAL, and PVC ae. Becase ofthe new eimate and envizonnvental scenarios, this sud presented a relevant contuibuton to chatacterzing the potential areas in sol degradation processes, rainy in te Caatinga biome. Between the years 2017-2020, here was the occustence of sll degta ‘dation procesesinthe Agreste region of Perambco, weve thestate sity basin lornted, cased by oor management, use of arable land, and long periods of dough. = Conesponcing author Unlvetsidade Federal Ruts de Pernambuco ~ UFRDE, Bran mall addres virianovesss@outook com (MNN, Melo), duds lvelra@hotnail.com (MLEG. OWveba), sleéso081 @hounaicom (GLP. AlmelGe, nico fares@houmallcom (NF. Gomes), agiomontalvokensyagmal.con (KR. Montalvo Morales), tlzchaes@zgmallcom (TC. Santas), parypeeyshoo.com (P.. Sila), lex Ghotmail om (AS. Morac), Hpandor(@homalcom (H. Pander), marcolino 11@hotai.com (MLV. Sra). _ntps//dol.org/10.1016/18a8e.2022.100756 Received & Noveatber 2021; Received in vevised form 10 April 2022; Accepted 10 Apuil 2022 Available online 14 April 2022 2352-9385/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rghts reserved.MAN, Mal ee Remote Sens Aplcatons Scien Evrment 26 (2022) 100756 1. Introduction ‘The characterization of land use and land cover (LULC), as well asthe identification ofits degradation factors, are necessary for the preservation of the agroecosystom and help in decision-making aimed at mitigating actions, regarding the conservation of the envi ronment and improvement in agricultural practices in the Brazilian semiarid (Santos etal, 20203 Silva etal, 20208, 20200). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 339% of the world’s sols are ata certain level of degradation, which reflects a worldwide growth of degraded areas and the process of desertification (FAO, 2018). Degradation results from the accelerated growth of the human population, which in tarn influences the expansion of land and intensification of agricultural and livestock production (Koch et al, 2013; Anmunidson et al, 2015; Kopittke etal, 2019). ‘The degradation of pastures is an aggravating factor inthe Brazilian agricultural scenario, since pasture isthe food base of livestock, ‘and the proper management of pastures significantly contributes to the productive and economic efficiency of agriculture in the ‘country (Batista et al, 20208, 2020). About 8096 of the agricultural areas in Northeast Brazil (NEB) are composed of subsistence agriculture, forage palais one of the most produced crops in the NEB since it benefits small, medium, and large rural producers, either in the culture or intended for animal feed, itis estimated thatthe NEB is responsible for more than 85% of the national production of, forage cactus (Marengo etal, 2021; Silva etal, 2021) According to the latest censits by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografiae Estatistica BGE), 479% of the agricultural sector's produetion units are comprised of pastures, whether in their natural and/or planted forn (ce, 2017). ‘The quantity and quality of pasture have a direct influence on animal performance (Serrano et ll, 20185 Basta et al, 202055 Giongo etal, 2022). Thus, the characterization of LULC, as wel a the diagnosis of degradation are key aspects of soil management and the quality of pastures, fundamental for its evaluation and management adequacy to achieve productive effiEciency (e., forage ‘quality, vegetation cover, and sol! quality) (Silva et al., 2019; Fernauides et al., 2020; Sousa et al, 2021). Several studies emphasize the applicability and efficiency ofthe use of LULC forthe characterization of regions, which is associated. With the analysis of vegetation indices, allows the characterization and validation of impacts on agriealture and livestock, with emphasis on the spatial dynamics of pastures, being the set of these techniques efficient and promising in soil characterization (Silva ‘14, 2020b), Silvis etal (2020) applied LULC maps via the MapBiomas platform in the Agreste region of the state of Pernambuco and. associated it with vegetation indices between 1998 and 2018, in which the authors observed that the association of the degree of soil dogtadation via indices have a strong relationship with agricultural coverage, an indication of anthropie degradation in the en ronment, Batista et al. (2020a) associated the degree of pasture degradation via the pasture vegetation cover Index (PVG) (Gao et al, 2005) and observed significant results in the characterization of pasture degradation. In this context, the monitoring of pastures through remote sensing techniques, via geopracessing of satellite images, makes it possible to generate maps of vegetation indices, such as the pasture vegetation coverage index (PVC) proposed by Gao etal. (2000), g2IW SO27W WEINW IeHNW MSW AW AU aw SEW TOW enw _asinW 05 PIS ANS 15S 10°30 08 100 200 km 105 Legend sous America SRTM.GOm) Sarai as i State of Pemambuco pa $55 ERA Study Area 693 oppen-eiger 833 Ear Am 972 ma Sk a aml Ces 12 Cb SasS 80S FSS SoS I Fig. 1, Charceestion of the sudy ace followed by sevstion (A) bated on dat fom the Shute Radar Topography Mision ~SRTM and Kippen-Geigercimste ‘lssifcron 8)MAN, Malo et Remote Sens Aplcatons Scien Evrment 26 (2022) 100756 soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVD proposed by Hucte (1998) and the leaf area index (LAD proposed by Allen et al. (2007), in which these indices are widespread in the literature (Chen and Black, 1992; Batista et al, 2020; Rajabov et al, 2020; Silva et al., 2019, 20208, 2020b). In this way, it allows the assessment of the degree of susceptibility to degradation of areas under pasture, in addition to the large-scale spatiotemporal survey, minimizing current difficulties in on-site assessments (e.g, difficult access to remote areas, high situ collection costs, among others) (Sv et al., 20200, 2021; Zhang et al., 2021; Santos eal, 2021). Within the field of remote sensing and image geoprocessing, Google Earth Engine (GEE) las emerged in recent years, which, isa real-time cloud processing platform designed to store and process a large ser of data (Kuniar ane Muanga, 20185 Mutange and Kunst, 2019). GEE is interesting for allowing free access, as well as for its large and growing database and users, as well as for the access available to several satellites (e.., satellite Landsat 5 sensor Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Landsat 8 sensor Operational Land Imager (OLD; Sentinel satellites 1, 2, 3, and 5 sensors Synthetic Aperture Satellite (SAR, Sentinel-1 and 2), Multispectral Imager (MSI, Sentinel-2), Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI, Sentinel-3) and the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI, Sentinel-9); AQUA and TERRA satellites with Moderate Resolution Invaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor, among others), that allows direct management of ime series and facilitates parallel processing (Kennedy et al, 2018 Ortega et al, 2020). Given the above, the objective of this research was to evaluate the spatial-temporal dynamics of vegetation cover and soil degradation in the Agreste mesoregion of the state of Pemnambuico, through vegetation indices from Sentinel-2/MSI images, and to . The extracted raster file was processed using QGis software version 3.12. ‘The generated LULC map was classified based on the catalog from the 6.0 collection (MapBiomas Brasil, 2021). Collection 6.0 has a ‘catalog with 83 classes, rypleal of the platform, in which the following major classes were prioritized: forest, a non-forest natural formation, agriculture and livestock, urban area, and water bodies. Image processing was performed using QGis software version 3.12. 2.3, Sentinel 2/MST image selection ‘To expand terrestrial information, techniques of digital Image processing by remote seusing were Introduced, based on 8 images from the Sentinel 2/MSI satellite (2017-2020), using the sensor Multispectral Instrument (MSI) (with processing level 2A) which has a ‘spatial resolution of 10 m. All Sentinel-2/MSI orbital iniages were selected from the spatial database ofthe National Aeronauties and Space Administration via the United States Geological Survey (USGS) platform — (Table 1). The images covering the study area have an orbit of 215 and a point of 66, selected under a cloudless sky condition, in which the criteria for clouds of less than 10% were established (<10%6). Throughout the study period, the selected images comprised the rainy season (from March to August) which presents average monthly rainfall above 100 num, and the dry season (from September to February) which presents average monthly rainfall below 50 mm according to the Instiuto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET) (INMET, 2010). 24. Digital processing of Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud vegetation indices By selecting the images on the USGS platform, the code for each image was extracted and used for processing on the GEE platform, Teble 1 Sentinel 2 Satelite pass dates, followed by the Julien day (3D), hour of ossng the equa (b, UTC = ental tine unit, hou minutes and seconds), sla elevation ‘gle (E”) end aainuth of te sun (a “ Date 2 Bure) E : ‘Api 08, 2017 ne 12H53min (pam) 3539 a6 ‘ily 12,2017 a 12452min (pm) 2a wzr34 May 06,2018 16 2hssiin (pa) soa 35.08 9/14/2018, 26 124ssiin (pa) sa23 4662 uly 12,2018, a aussi (pan) 2as1 war os/ai/2019 m1. 2ussmin (pan) sos ais December 12, 2019 346 12458min pam) 215, 17754 94/15/2020 106 12aSsmin (pm) 2851 5136