Journal of Integrated Coastal Zone Management / Revista da Gestão Costeira Integrada 18(1):25-39 (2018) http://www.aprh.pt/rgci/pdf/rgci-n106_Lipp-Nissinen.pdf | DOI:10.5894/rgci-n106 25 Temporal dynamics of land use and cover in Paurá Lagoon region, Middle Coast of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil Dinâmica temporal de uso e cobertura do solo na região da Lagoa do Paurá, Litoral Médio do Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil Katia Helena Lipp-Nissinen 1, @ , Bruna de Sá Piñeiro 2 , Letícia Sebastião Miranda 2 , Alexandre de Paula Alves 3 @ Corresponding author: katiahln@fepam.rs.gov.br 1 Departamento de Pesquisa e Análises Laboratoriais, Fundação Estadual de Proteção Ambiental Henrique Luiz Roessler – FEPAM, Av. Borges de Medeiros, 261, Porto Alegre, RS, CEP 90.020-021, Brazil 2 Departamento de Pesquisa e Análises Laboratoriais, Programa Institucional de Iniciação Científca - PIBIC/CNPq, Fundação Estadual de Proteção Ambiental Henrique Luiz Roessler – FEPAM 3 Divisão de Planejamento, Qualidade Ambiental e Geoprocessamento - DPQG/DQPI, Fundação Estadual de Proteção Ambiental Henrique Luiz Roessler – FEPAM ABSTRACT: Land use and land cover studies can help in the monitoring and management of important landscapes and priority areas for conservation, especially those threatened by anthropogenic processes. The Middle Coastal region of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) – the southernmost State of Brazil, comprises a variety of ecosystems recognized as highly important for conservation. Threats to their integrity include Pinus sp forestry and its rapid invasiveness over natural areas, like the surroundings of Paurá Lagoon (-31°34’, -51°17’ and -31°35’, -51º18’). Through remote sensing and feld observations, the present study sought to identify, quantify and map the main thematic classes of land use and coverage in the vicinities of the Paurá Lagoon. Changes and infuencing factors over 26 years were studied using four Landsat TM 5 satellite images, dated from 06/02/1985, 30/07/1996, 23/05/2006 and 28/10/2011. Besides lagoon water, eight other thematic classes were identifed and quantifed: Dune, Vegetated Dune, Restinga Forest, Wet Grassland/Marsh, Sandy Field/Exposed Soil, Pasture Field, Forestry and Forested Dune. Various relevant changes in the landscape were observed, measured and compared over time, including the occupation of the legally-bound permanent preservation areas (PPA) by Pinus sp and its subsequent partial * Submission: 21 MAR 2017; Peer review: 4 AGO 2017; Revised: 29 ABR 2018; Accepted: 1 MAY 2018; Available on-line: 2 JUL 2018 Katia Helena Lipp-Nissinen et al.