IES strengthens its ties with Brazilian Research Institutes
In May 2012, IES scientist René Beuchle participated in the GEOBIA 2012 conference where he presented the Global Forest Resource Monitoring (TREES-3) Action process for an object-based automatic updating of a tropical forest cover change assessment, and also met with EMBRAPA, the Brazilian National Agricultural Research Corporation, to discuss possible future research collaboration with the various EMBRAPA offices at Campinas.
Approximately 160 participants attended the GEOBIA Conference, the fourth international conference on Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis, which was held in Rio de Janeiro from the 7th-9th May 2012. Among the various interesting discussions was the accuracy assessment design for object-based (rather than pixel-based) geo-information. Other interesting topics included the combination of LIDAR and multispectral data for characterising tropical forest and the use of object-based landscape indices in the context of tropical forest cover change assessment.
In general, object-based image analysis is still mostly focused on analysing very high resolution imagery. Relatively few applications were shown for Landsat data or Landsat-type images (e.g. IRS-LISS, ALOS AVNIR and DMC). All conference papers are available at http://www.inpe.br/geobia2012/
EMBRAPA, the Brazilian National Agricultural Research Corporation, is made up of 47 research centres throughout Brazil. It also has numerous international research projects and “virtual labs”, and employs around 2 500 people.
René visited two EMBRAPA institutes based in Campinas: EMBRAPA Monitoramento por Satélite (EMS) and EMBRAPA Gestão Territorial Estratégica (EGTE).
EMS is focused on geo-spatial research and innovation in the field of sustainable agriculture based on satellite imagery. The management of the institute was particularly interested in collaborating with the IES’s TREES-3 Action in the fields of forest biomass and the upcoming JRC analysis of forest cover change in Brazil from 1975-1990.
The recently formed EGTE focuses on providing satellite image analysis services for various Brazilian ministries, for example by monitoring the progress and environmental impact of construction sites of national interest.
In addition, René was in contact with EMBRAPA Informática Agropecuária (EIA), also based in Campinas, whose main research topics are natural resources, biodiversity, plant growth modelling, impact studies in the context of climate change and agriculture. The institute has also research activities in the field of tropical forest biomass. EIA is carrying out an interesting project that falls in line with the TREES-3 activities: The TerraClass project maps the land use of deforested areas for 2008 within the area of the Legal Amazon on the basis of deforestation areas defined by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research’s PRODES project. An update for mapping the land use of deforested areas for year 2010 is in preparation.
All EMBRAPA institutes expressed strong interest in starting or strengthening research collaboration with the JRC.
Recent joint publications from the research collaboration of TREES-3 with EMBRAPA:
Further information:
- GEOBIA 2012: http://www.inpe.br/geobia2012/
- EMBRAPA: http://www.embrapa.br/
- EMBRAPA Monitoramento por Satélite (EMS): http://www.cnpm.embrapa.br/en/projetos/index.php
- EMBRAPA’s “virtual labs”: http://www.embrapa.br/a_embrapa/a_embrapa/labex
