The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the influence of climate (insolation and annual precipitation) and relief (slope) on the land use and forest changes in a mountainous watershed (Paquequer / RJ) representative of the Atlantic Forest. Land use thematic maps for different dates (1976 and 1996) were derived from aerial photographs and SPOT-3 XS/PAN image. Land use and natural regeneration changes in 20 years were classified as initial natural regeneration, late natural regeneration, degeneration and deforestation. GIS spatial informations were dealt with ArcGIS 9.0. While initial regeneration occurs indistinctly of the climatic and relief parameters, it is suggested that advanced regeneration is a more selective process. That is, advanced regeneration occurs mainly in areas with less insolation and higher humidity. On the other hand, the deforestation for human use tends to be more intense in lower and greater insolation slopes (toward north).
Geoprocessing; Geoecology and Land use
