ABSTRACT In general, the semiarid region of Paraíba (northeastern Brazil) the vegetation has changed due to human activities, for example, Peixe River basin, that has suffered over the years by human occupation. In this context, this paper aims to conduct a multi-temporal analysis of biophysical variables derived from images of the Landsat 5 satellite and digital image processing techniques and GIS for 23 years. The results indicated increase of vegetation specially in the high slope areas of the basin. That fact may be related to the exodus of rural population occurred during the observed period .It was also observed that the surface albedo was best correlated parameter with changes in vegetal biomass. However, the isolated variations in vegetation cover were not enough to explain the variations in surface temperature and net radiation over the analyzed years.
satellite images; vegetal cover; digital imageprocessing
