The Piraputanga basin (170,82 km2) is located in Southwest of Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The main river (Piraputanga River) drains to the left margin of the Paraguay River and the soucers of the tributaries rise in the Mountainous Province (680m).
This study aims to analyse the soil use in the basin, from 1968 to 1997, in the 5 geomorphlogical / lithological compartments.
The compartments division was made using topographical maps (1:250.000), satellite image LANDSAT 1990 (1:100.000, bands 3, 4 and 5) and studies published by RADAMBRASIL (1982). The analysis of the soil use was made from aerial pictures of 1968 (1:60.000/USAF) and satellite images of 1990 (1:100.000/LANDSAT) and 1997 (1:50.000/LANDSAT, bands 3, 4 and 5).
The results showed that in the anticlinal valley, with limestone, occurred a reduction in the gallery and tropical forests, due to deforestation for the production of vegetable coal and to the expansion of the pasture. In the anticlinal valley with borders sculpted in sandstone it was totally occupied by pastures, going up the hillsides in some points. In some places the subsistence cultivation was preserved. In the synclinal valley in shale and siltite significant changes have not occurred, however, the deforestation and the highway MT 126, among other factors, provoked erosion creating gullies and rills. The largest modifications in the use and occupation of the soil happened in the depression in sand-clay sediments, due to the expansion of the urban area, construction of the airport, besides the increase of the pasture. As a consequence it was verified the reduction in the gallery forest, in the tropical forest and in the farming. In the floodplain in fine sediments, the change was related to the substitution of the natural pasture for cultivated pasture, reducing the valley forest.