IBGE releases on its website the third edition of the “Technical Manual of Land Use”, a reference work for monitoring land use and coverage and for analyzing, at exploratory scale, the dynamics of territory occupation and use in Brazil. This new edition presents norms for the production and storage of information in a database, fulfilling the needs of technical specifications required by the National Spatial Data infrastructure – INDE (www.inde.gov.br), among other innovations.
The manual, in PDF format, can be accessed at Technical Manual of Land Use
The printed publication with a CD-ROM is being sold at the IBGE Virtual Shop
The third edition of the “Technical Manual of Land Use” brings innovations such as the possible combination, in the same database, of up to three of the types of uses identified in the country so far. The processing of these data generated a classification system for land use which allows a mapping unit to be described the same way at any spot in Brazil. This system allows the selection of the class of interest, according to the class, subclass or unit level, either Federation Units, Major Regions or the country overall.
Another innovation in this edition is the iconographic representation of classes as a way to give the user images of land use patterns. The map also brings a detailed list of all the products related to each of the typologies being used, in compliance with the terminology used by IBGE for urban areas, forestry products and the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE). With reference to the National Water Agency (ANA) and those established by Resolutions of the National Council of Environment (CONAMA) 20/1986 and 357/2005.
Given its theoretical and methodological framework and the procedures presented by it, the manual is expected to contribute to the production of nationwide information accessible by any user, thus allowing easier identification and mapping of land.