Assessment of the Influence of Total Deforestation of the Cocó River Park

For this study, simulations were carried out using the RAMS model - version 6.0. The key objective was to simulate the impact of the total deforestation of Cocó River Park on the climate of the city of Fortaleza. The urbanisation process in Fortaleza is occurring in an uncontrolled manner, resulting in the replacement of natural vegetation with artificial surfaces, following the example of the growth process in cities in developing countries. To characterise the city’s climate, numerical experiments were carried out considering two scenarios: (1) replacement of the existing vegetation types in the model domain for the city of Fortaleza, using parameters adjusted from satellite image data, and (2) considering the complete deforestation of the Rio Cocó Ecological Park, through replacement by vegetation cover classes from the LEAF-3 module, thus identifying possible changes in the variables that make up the urban climate. The model was validated with observation data from some Data Collection Platforms (PCDs) of the Ceará Foundation for Meteorology and Water Resources (FUNCEME) in the city of Fortaleza.