Resumen

NAVARRO-CECILIANO, Osvaldo. Study of soil bearing capacity in the Río Torres Interurban Biological Corridor, Costa Rica. Rev. Geog. Amer. Central [online]. 2021, n.67, pp.144-169. ISSN 2215-2563.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/rgac.67-2.6.

The soil bearing capacity in the Río Torres Interurban Biological Corridor was estimated employing three surface variables (stoniness, effective depth, and slope), the result indicated unrestricted ag ricultural and conservation forestland as the predominant categories. Next, land use types existing throughout the corridor were identified by means of the supervised classification of satellite images, which evidenced 53.62% of total area as occupied by urban activities, 25.7% forest coverage and 19.91% destined to livestock grazing and pastures. Soil bearing capacity data and land use visual ization allowed the identification of areas with optimal and over exploitation, the latter amounted to 15.21% of the corridor’s total land area. For both types of areas, good forestry practices were de fined in order to reduce soil degradation. Finally, forest coverage fragmentation was evaluated and found to exhibit a high degree of segmentation, thus strategies were recommended to reestablish connectivity between isolated fragments.

Palabras clave : Interurban biological corridor; Soil bearing capacity; Land use; Forest coverage fragmentation..

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