Land cover change, landscape degradation, and restoration along a railway line in the Amazon biome, Brazil

Railways are known to have less influence on land use than other transportation systems. However, railways also affect biodiversity, water resources, socioeconomic outcomes, and land prices. In the context of changes in land cover and land use (LCLU) classes, this study analyses the changes arising from the establishment of the Carajas Mining Project in 1984 along the more than 900-km length of the Carajas Railway (CRW) in southeastern Amazonia. LANDSAT-5 (1984) and LANDSAT-8 (2014) satellite images and human settlement layers (1990 and 2015) along CRW were used to assess LCLU changes. Satellite images were analysed with the geographic object-based image analysis method to detect changes in LCLU classes, including municipalities located less than 50 km from the CRW. The results showed that in 1984, the areas of influence of the CRW consisted of 69% forest cover, 24% nonforest cover, 3% water, and 2% cloud cover. In 2014, forest area dropped significantly to 43%, whereas the nonforest class expanded to 46%. This analysis revealed that the conversion of forests to pastures represents the major landscape degradation that occupy 51% of the study site mainly in rural human settlement areas, which are interlinked with the construction of the CRW. Only 6% of the total area exhibits a trend of restoration marked by secondary vegetation growing. The land occupation model along the CRW is characterized by rural settlements, associated with roads and extensive pasturelands. Construction of this railway in a certain way prevented the fishbone occupation type as observed in the western Amazon.