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Introduction: The process of degradation of the environmental system of the Farinha river basin is due to soil inadequacy and natural factors.

Aims: The present work had as objective to evaluate the degree of deterioration of the environmental system of the hydrographic basin of the river Farinha the geo - referenced information are related to the physical characterization of the micro-basin based on the physical conservationist diagnosis of the Geographic Information Systems - GIS.

Methodology: The hydrographic basin of the Farinha River, located in the Center-West region of Paraíba, includes an area of 8.0915,8 ha. Images of the Landsat 8 satellite, OLI sensor in bands 3, 4 and 5 were applied, are classified as a visual and supervised process. With this, the software QGIS 2.18.17 generated vector data and the IDRISI Selva V.17, was used as a means to process the raster data. Under these conditions, the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the SRTM project was included for plans related to the polygonal delimitation of the micro-basin, characterizing a drainage network, compartmentalization and mean slope.

Results: The natural vegetation of the Caatinga presents as open tree shrub and closed arboreal, with the predominance of open vegetation, representing 48037 ha (59.4%). Concerning conflict analysis for land use, it was observed that compartment 1 was the only one that did not present such events. Compartment 2 resulted in a higher percentage of conflicts with 24.1%, however, areas with 4.2% have agricultural divergences, the 19.9% are due to livestock and mining activities. In relation to compartment 3 the area 6.3% is used for agriculture.

Conclusion: The physical-conservationist diagnosis of the micro-basin of the river Farinha presents an incorrect management, for this, a suitable study must be done to reduce the degradation of the area. Consequently, public policies are designed to interconnect communities living in these areas with their physical environment in a sustainable way.