INCOBRA - Increasing International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Brazil and the European Union

Experts in forest research have an important system to support biomass and forest studies. The project Sustainable Landscapes Brazil presents data by LiDAR technology (Light Detection and Ranging) and high-precision remote sensing of three Brazilian biomes: Amazon, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest. Everything is available from the Web GIS system, which works as a kind of Google Maps for biomes, with the aim of developing sustainable management of ecosystems.

The Internet user chooses the Brazilian state available and the type of map he/she prefers, from the available options. With free access, on registration, the geographic information system (GIS) digital is hosted at Embrapa Information Technology (Campinas, SP).

The LiDAR technology uses an airborne laser system that allows us to evaluate in detail the study area, providing information of the land surface and vegetation structure. The data are useful for performing searches for forest inventory and biomass calculations, carbon stocks and geoglifos, for example.

The remote sensing analyst Maiza Nara dos Santos, affiliated to the Foundation Arthur Bernardes (Funarbe), explains that results are available from an extensive data collection work in partnership with Brazilian and international research institutions. With these organized and free data, experts can devote more time and resources to research. "Through partnerships it is possible to facilitate the access to Brazilian researchers," said Maiza.

The edge effect studies are another example of work using the LiDAR data and contributes to forest degradation analysis. The scanning laser technology quite widespread in Europe and the United States is still little used in Brazil. The Brazilian Forest Service, one of the partners, provided data on monitoring and control of logging in the Amazon, which also favors the development of inventories.

The Sustainable Landscapes project is coordinated since 2011 by the researcher from the US Forest Service (USFS) Michael Keller, a visiting scientist at cooperation program called Labex Reversed Embrapa.

(Management Agency CT & I, with the Embrapa information)