Modelagem em escala regional da erosão relacionada com a evolução da cobertura do solo: Um estudo de caso no sudeste do Brasil

Accelerated soil erosion is, at present, one of the most widespread environmental problems in the world. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become an essential tool in soil erosion studies and consequently in the development of appropriate soil conservation strategies. The objective of this paper was to assess the degree of soil erosion associated with land cover dynamics through GIS analysis and to validate the modeling with indicators of soil erosion. Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model, GIS technology and ground-truth dataset (erosion indicators) were employed to elaborate the soil loss maps for four dates at Sorocaba Municipality (SP, Brazil). It was verified that, although the predicted soil loss rate is normally small along the study area, such rate is significantly greater than the soil formation rate. This shows a non-sustainable situation of soil and land cover management. Unplanned urban expansion seems be the main driving force that acts in increasing the erosion risk/occurrence along the study area.

La crisis restructral del capitalismo y sus repercusiones

This article analyzes the structural crisis of capitalism that began when the speculative home mortgage bubble burst in the United States in 2007, and the repercussions of that phenome- non. The current crisis is the outcome of a series of processes unleashed as a result of the crisis of overaccumulation of capital in the 1970s, which generated, on the one hand, the conditions for financial capital’s dominance and, on the other, a new frontier for the accumulation of cap- ital in East Asia, especially in China. The crisis calls into question the centrality of the North American economy, but that does not necessarily mean the shift of capitalism’s hegemonic cen- ter to Asia. Here we will argue that we are headed toward a multipolar world.