This paper consists in analyzing the relationship between the urbanization and the degradation of the small watershed Cambuå-Putins, located at the city of São José dos Campos, state of São Paulo, during the period of 1977 to 1997.The study area presents some modifications due to an accelerated process of urbanization. The process of degradation is determined by the non organized urban expansion in the area of its spring, by the incompatibility of the uses related to the physical and environmental characteristics and by the throwing of domestic and industrial effluents(sewage) into the drainage without any treatment. It has the objective of evaluating the urban evolution and the environment degradation in the area of the small watershed. The methodological approach in the aspect of the small watershed used technical concepts of Landscape Ecology and the application of the techniques of Remote Sensing and Geoprocessing in the determination of Environmental Units, which compose the small watershed. Four environmental units were delimited according to the similarities of the physical - environmental conditions, the patterns of urbanization, the soil use and natural vegetation cover. The process of urbanization, degradation and alternative proposals of management specific to each unit were analyzed for each environment unit. The visual interpretation of the PAN/HRV spot images and the aerial photography produce a land use and vegetation map. Integrating the environmental units, land use map and the degradation map, the synthetic map was produced, which shows the urbanization process dynamic, relating the degradation intensity in each unit. An environmental zoning was proposed using those data.The Remote Sensing data and geoprocessing techniques showed to be very useful to the environmental analysis of this watershed.