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GISdevelopment.net --> Policy --> Geographic Information Infrastructure
Geo-Spatial Data Infrastructure in Brazil : Some Keynotes
Tania Maria Sausen INPE-CEP, Av. dos Astronuats 1758, Cx.P. 515 CEP 12201-970 São José dos Campos, SP, Brasil Email: Tania@ltid.inpe.br The National Insitute for Space Resources-INPE, in Brasil, is the main intitution in space area in Latin America. Since its fundation it has been involved in research and capacity building in remote sensing and natural resources areas. I INPE has played an important role in creating a critical mass, in space area, mainly in remote sensing, in Brasil and Latin America. INPE is the only insitution in the region that have developed a software dedicated to GIS and image processing. At the end of 60's and beginning of 70's INPE created the Remote Sensing Project-SERE, the embryo of the Remote Sensing Division. In June 1973 the Brazilian LANDSAT antena started its operation. In order to create its own researcher team INPE has created a master degree course in remote sensing in 1968 and the doctor degree was created in 1998. In the end of the 70's and begining of the 80's INPE created the SITIM system, the first Brazilian image processing software. In 1986 INPE has created the SGI system, the first Brazilian GIS software. These two softwares were developed in DOS and in Portugues; In the 80's INPE started to developd the Amazonia Deforestation Project-PRODES, the largest forest monitoring project in the world. In 1985, in order to dissemiante and to increase the remote sensing and GIS community in Brazil INPE started the RS Regional Labs Program. Totaday it is possible to find more than 100 labs in all country regions. In 1992 INPE started to developed the SPRING Project; a new geo-processing software;
Its objectives are:
The concern with a good territorial management has motivated the Government to better understand the human activities in the region, aiming to better guide its policies, including its sustainability, the rational use of the natural resources, and the well-being of the local population. A fundamental aspect of the Government actions concerns the generation of periodic estimates of the extent and rate of gross deforestation in the Amazon, a task which could never be conducted without the use of space technology. Brazil carries out these assessments based on the analysis of Landsat images acquired and processed by INPE since 1974. The first complete assessment conducted by the Institute was carried out for years 1974 and 1978. Annual assessments have been conducted by the Institute since 1988, under a project known as PRODES (Estimate of Amazon Gross Deforestation). Deforestation, here, refers to the conversion of areas of primary forest physiognomy by anthropogenic activities, for the development of agriculture and cattle raising, detected by orbital platforms. Gross deforestation indicates that areas in process of secondary succession or forest recovery are not subtracted in the calculation of the extent and the rate. The above definition does not include areas of forest affected by selective logging activities or wild fires, which are object of specific reports by INPE. Color composite satellite images at a scale of 1:250,000 allow the identification of changes in forest cover of 6.25 ha and larger. The Brazilian Amazon is covered by 229 of such images, which are interpreted for the boundaries between primary forest and other types of non-forest vegetation. At each assessment, the areas of new deforestation are delimited. The deforested areas are outlined in overlays, which are subject to a rigorous quality control. When approved, the overlays are scanned and integrated into a Geographical Information System to provide the localization and extent of the deforested areas. The digital data are converted to a format that allows the presentation of deforestation in any geographical format, for instance, large vegetation classes, municipalities etc. Each assessment involves approximately 50,000 person x hours, 10,000 machine x hours hired by Fundação de Ciência, Aplicações e Tecnologia Espaciais - FUNCATE. In addition to the 70 specialists involved in the project, a team of 15 researchers from INPE accompanies all phases of PRODES, ensuring its high quality control.
The distribution of the deforested areas by classes of size is used by governmental and non-governmental agencies as an indicator of the possible causes of deforestation in the Amazon. The annual results presents the distribution of the mean rate of deforestation (% / year) by classes of size. and the distribution of the mean rate of gross deforestation for years for the following thematic classes:
The sample used to generate the provisional estimates of the mean rate of gross deforestation are selected so as to include scenes with the largest rates. This procedure was adopted in 1997, which involved 47 scenes. The estimated rate was later found to be in good agreement with that based on the analysis of all scenes, within 1.5%. The second estimate, for the period 1997/1998, based on 46 images, was in error of 3,1% in relation of the final estimate. Ecological-Economical Zoning for Brazil
It were developed maps in the following scales:
Inventory Disciplinary Analysis
INTEGRATION ANALYSIS-INTER AND TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESULTS - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Conflict matrices; Environmental quality map ECOLOGICAL-ECONOMICAL ZONING FOR BRAZIL SECOND PHASE - PREDICTION Final Product :
Usually the professionals are extremely able to manage the softwares, the computers, to create and to set up a database, but not rare, they do not know what to do with all information available in the databases. Usually they are more concerned in setting up the database than to analyse the datas, or to get all information that is possible to have from the databases. To set up a database it is not necessary to be a professional with very high qualification. It is necessary to have a very good manager, well qualified and which know a lot about database and to have a very good professional in computational area. In order to introduce the datas in the database a very good technician is able to do a very good job. The manager and the professional in computer area know how to set up and to control the system, the technician role is to know how to introduce the datas in the database. But to analyse, to get all information from the databases, it is necessary to have a very qualified professional, that have all knowledge about the datas, how to integrate these datas, how to get all information available, and how to use them for different purposes, like urban and regional planning, road infrastructure, environmental impacts, etc. These kind of professionals are, geographers, urbanist, agronomists, geologists, etc, that are concerned with the data information, not with the computer and software operation "Having a very good database without professionals qualified to get all information from the datas is the same of having a wonderful and red FERRARI car, in a bad road with a very bad driver". How to Solve the Problem : Capacity Building, Education, Training not only in operating the softwares and computer, not only in seting up the databases, but mainly to take advantages from the datas and to solve the social, economical and environmental problems. |
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