Mapping of environmental fragility in Atlantic Forest protected areas through multicriteria analysis

The zoning of protected areas reduces the environmental impacts caused by the recreational use of such locations. Thus, this study aims to develop a predictive model of environmental fragility to support ecotourism planning. A Geographic Information System were used to produce thematic maps of the slope, soil type, precipitation, flow accumulation, and land cover, which were then overlaid to generate the environmental fragility map. The results showed that 73.6% of the Serra Negra da Mantiqueira State Park and 72.7% of the Serra Negra Private Reserve lie within the moderate fragility class, followed by the high (19.3% and 18.6%), very high (5.5% and 6.4%), and low (1.7% and 2.3%) fragility classes, respectively. The long-distance trail that follows the crest of the Serra Negra traverses the territory of the park and the private reserve, showing predominantly moderate (47.5%) to high (41.5%) fragility. The resulting cartographic product allows the definition of new trails, reducing the environmental fragility of the routes, and can be replicated in other protected areas.