Through a case study, this work tests how the delimitation of the study area may influence the results of multiscale analyses in spatial processes of land-use and landcover change in the Amazon. Within the municipal limits of Santarém and Belterra in western Pará State, three levels of analysis were defined. The first level encompasses a rectangular region that was arbitrarily defined as the Santarém subregion. The second level, which encompasses part of the first level, corresponds to an established agricultural settlement, defined by the set of limits of property lots designed by INCRA in the 1970’s. The third level corresponds to the zones of influence of four different roads located within the established agricultural settlement, subdivided into sub areas North and South, comprising a total of eight sub areas within the second level of delimitation. For each level of analysis, landscape metrics were calculated based on land-use and land-cover thematic maps for 1986, 1997, and 2005, also analyzed with basis on field surveys. The results show that the peculiarities of the occupation dynamics in each level allow for a better identification of patterns and processes revealed by the landscape structure. In particular, it is clear there is a continuation of processes of landscape fragmentation and expansion of intensive agriculture at different rates in distinct portions of the study area. The results obtained for the three levels of analysis are complementary, allowing for a better understanding of land-use and land-cover changes as well as their driving forces.
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