The suape estuarine zone is formed by Massangana, Tatuoca, Ipojuca and Merepe rivers, that are located about 25km Southern far from Recife. The settlement of a port and the industrial Complex structure came to cause earthwork, dredging and darnming, modifying extensively the local hidrology and the scenery. Photointerpretation and reambulation were realized on the basis of aerial photographs (scale 1:30.000) taken in 1974 and 1988; images of the Landsat 5 satellite in 1984, and topographic maps (scale 1:25.000) in 1971, resulting in mangrove vegetation maps of 1974 and 1988, which clearly indicate the physical interventions during this period. In 1974 there were 2874ha of mangrove. A reduction of 21% led, in 1988, to 2276ha from whiten 214ha have been landing by clay land material from other areas; 384ha were inundated due to dredging gand diking. More than 27ha are in a degradation process. In order to allow the characterization of the mangrove structure, eight observation stations were settled in preserved and regenerating areas. The mangrove is formed by Rhizophora mangle L., Avicennia germinans (L.) Stearn., Avicennia schaueriana Stapf. i; Leechman., Laguncularia racemosa Gaertn. in its nucleus and Conocarpus erectus L. in the bordeline. In preserved areas, the forest of mangrove exhibit a good expansion profile in agreement with the considered parameters (density, basal area, forest height and medium diameter). The regenerating areas characterized by a high dense incipient forest what lead us to believe that if these areas will be preserved they will get the equilibrium.
magrove; environmental impact