The State of the Environment in Michoacán de Ocampo. Mexico
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Abstract
This paper is the outcome of an effort of several years to formulate a methodology for determining the State of the Environment over a territory. The case study is the State of Michoacan in Southern Mexico. The methodology establishes an environmental diagnostic with an integral, holistic, approach. A geoecological approach, following theoretical and methodological principles of Landscape Geoecology, serves to guide the spatial analysis of spatial units defined with a typology based on physical geography. The environmental diagnostic is done with the integration of indicators describing biophysical degradation, anthropogenic modification and socioeconomical and demographic conditions. The indicators were calculated, classified and spatialized employing Geographical Information Systems, multivariate statistics and techniques, specifically using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The results for the case study show that 19.1% of the territory of Michoacan is under states ‘critical’ and ‘unstable to critical’, and another 40% corresponds to landscapes in a state categorized as ‘unstable’. This speaks of an environmental state that can be categorized as worrisome. The integrated diagnostic of the state of the environment is very useful as an instrument of planning within the framework of land planning policy at any government level, but also to support any protection, conservation, preservation or sustainable action on the environment of a territory.