Evaluation of deforestation, climate change and CO2 emissions in the Amazon biome using the Moran Index

Since the 1990s, the Amazon has been undergoing a severe occupation process, causing a significant increase in deforestation. This occupation occurs for various reasons, such as the expansion of agricultural areas and the extraction of raw materials, mainly through predatory logging. These factors are responsible for causing various impacts, such as an increase in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and changes in climate variables. In this context, the main objective of this work is to evaluate deforestation in the Amazon, verifying whether this problem is correlated with CO2 emission data and temperature increase, for the municipalities belonging to the biome. To this end, Moran's Index was calculated for the variables studied, and subsequently Moran's scatter diagram, significance map (LISA MAP) and Local Moran's Index map (LISA Cluster map) were generated to verify the correlations between these variables over the years. The results visualized by processing the Moran Index show that there is a high positive correlation between deforestation and CO2 emissions, especially in the municipalities located in the "arc of deforestation". With regard to the temperature variable, Moran's Index indicated that municipalities with high rates of deforested area are the same municipalities that have above-average temperature values. Finally, the work shows that the Moran's Index tool is efficient and satisfactory for data analysis and that the methodology and information provided through it can be applied to other studies and different databases, and can help decision-makers create strategies to combat and control deforestation and other problems in various regions of the country and the world.