THE USE OF GEOPROCESSING IN ENVIRONMENTAL LICENSING OF MINING ACTIVITY IN THE SOROCABA RIVER WATERSHED

Abstract

The need for an instrument to support the environmental licensing of the mining activity held in the Sorocaba river watershed State of São Paulo, led the Geological Institute to develop, in partnership with the Environmental Company of State of São Paulo – CETESB, a computational tool able to perform the input, edition, queries and visualization of the mining companies data. The aim of this tool is to provide a regional analysis to the licensing agency favoring the identification and evaluation of critical areas and related potential conflicts, according to criteria of densification, environmental degradation, commitment of water resources, proximity to urban areas and conservation units. This paper expresses the activity in the region and describes the structures and main features of the Geographic Information System. The development of GIS, designed in a client–server environment, mainly comprised its modeling and database organization, developed from information assessment in the CETESB’s environmental agencies of Itu, Botucatu and Sorocaba and involved the preparation and edition of several thematic maps. The developed and now being implemented system allows the user to access and interact with a georeferenced database of mining enterprises and licensing activities, mining supervision and control in the area of the watershed that may be extended to other environmental agencies of the State of São Paulo.