Simpósio de Geotecnologias no Pantanal

Estão entre os temas de interesse a avaliação e a aplicação de dados de sistemas sensores e geotecnologias em estudos do bioma Pantanal e sua bacia hidrográfica, como agropecuária, aplicações computacionais, cartografia e bancos de dados geográficos, educação ambiental, recursos hídricos, zoneamento e planejamento ambiental etc.

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UN bodies want up to $60 billion to monitor ... everything

A recent article on Fox News reports on plans to spend at least $2.1 billion a year for the next five years — and as much as $60 billion overall during that period — to glean huge troves of still undiscovered climate information from the world's land, air and seas.

The information system aims to measure literally everything environmental, from the full amount of plant leaf material in the world's ecosystems to the differences in saltiness throughout the world's oceans to the discharge from every one of the world's major rivers, to the monitoring of water vapor and cloud distribution throughout the earth's atmosphere.

This immense store of information is urgently needed to gain a true picture of the vastly complicated climatic and environmental interactions of the planet, according to a draft version of an update report on the huge project, known as the Global Observing System for Climate, which is not expected to be finalized until April 2010. And according to the report's authors, the information to be gathered is too valuable to be left to any single nation.

As the report puts it, in typically opaque technocratic prose, the wellsprings of climate information "need to be recognized as essential public goods, where the value of global availability of data exceeds any economic or strategic value of withholding national data."

The document is specifically intended to support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, although the report underlines that the observation system itself is not a formal U.N. body. Instead it's an effort by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), an obscure joint undertaking of a variety of international organizations, which does include such bodies as the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, both U.N. institutions.

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Brasil: Sistema Agrodatamine permitirá visualização de cenários futuros do clima

Um conjunto de técnicas e ferramentas para auxiliar na análise e visualização de dados metereológicos e de modelos de cenários futuros de mudanças climáticas vem sendo desenvolvido.

O projeto AgroDataMine: Desenvolvimento de Métodos e Técnicas de Mineração de Dados para apoiar Pesquisas em Mudanças Climáticas com Ênfase em Agrometeorologia acaba de ser aprovado numa chamada pública do Instituto Microsoft Research e da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp) de pesquisas em TI .

O desafio do projeto é gerenciar um grande volume de dados meteorológicos e climáticos de até 100 anos. “As informações são da ordem de terabytes e o sistema deverá processar dados de imagens de satélites, estações metereológicas e radares, entre outros”, descreve a professora Agma.

O projeto será focado no setor agrícola, já que a atividade é das mais afetadas pelas mudanças climáticas. Segundo Agma, a ocorrência de eventos extremos, como chuvas fortes, enchentes, secas e outros fenômenos leva a grandes perdas na agricultura bem como na população que é afetada. “A capacidade de analisar o cenário que propicia tais ocorrências e a correlação de índices e medidas climáticas permite a tomada de decisões estratégicas para se prevenir em relação aos eventos extremos”, avalia a professora. Além disso, a análise de cenários futuros permitirá que agricultores, cooperativas e governo possam decidir com melhor embasamento as melhores culturas ou adaptações a serem feitas nos plantios.

O AgroDataMine já está sendo aplicado na prática. Os primeiros resultados, no entanto, serão conhecidos em um prazo de dois anos, que é a duração prevista do projeto. Para os primeiros testes, os pesquisadores analisaram cinco regiões produtoras de cana-de-açúcar.

Os dados obtidos são referentes às temperaturas, mínimas e máximas, e imagens do satélite NOAA de um período de sete anos, entre 2001 e 2008. Os primeiros resultados indicam, por exemplo, que existe uma correlação entre a precipitação e o índice de vegetação obtido por meio das imagens de satélite, com uma defasagem de 2 meses. Isso significa que após 2 meses da ocorrência de muita chuva ou secas é que se observa um reflexo desse fenômeno na planta. Com isso, é possível utilizar as técnicas que estão sendo desenvolvidas pela equipe do projeto para encontrar correlações entre as diversas variáveis e definir modelos de previsão. “Esses novos métodos podem auxiliar os agrometeorologistas e fornecer informações aos agricultores ajudando-os na tomada de decisão”, revela a professora.

ler o artigo na íntegra

How the Internet enables farmers to comprehend climate

Climate information access by farmers is insufficient because their access hasn't been optimized. That is the result of a collaborative study by Australian researchers on climate change and its effects on farmers with small fields in Indonesia.

"Compared to Australia's farmers, the effects of climate change are similar, mainly draughts. However there is a significant difference, which is that Australian farmers can access weather forecast information through the internet," said Catherine Tulloh, a climate change researcher from Australia Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE).

Read the full article.

Technology helps deliver weather information fast

Technology is changing the way weather information - past, present and future - is captured and delivered. At South Dakota State University, climatologist Dennis Todey says today's communication tools - especially computers and the Internet - helped bring about these many changes.

As the Internet has become mainstream, scientists and the public have worked together to gather and share weather information to hone in on as small as a two- or three-mile radius region.

Farmers and ranchers use wind speeds, temperatures, precipitation and more data to make wise management decisions. Scientists also use that same information to determine warming and cooling trends.

“Climate is becoming so much more of an interest now,” Todey said. “I think you're going to see additional weather-related products that serve agriculture and will help people in their ability to produce.”

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Group on Earth Observations strengthens access to data and information

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is holding its annual Plenary meeting in Washington on 17-18 November to assess and promote progress towards making information about global environmental change readily available to policy-makers, managers and anyone else who needs it.

"GEO is on track to make critical information about global changes widely and easily available. By making petabytes of data accessible on-line, we will dramatically improve decision-making for the benefit of society," said Jose Achache, Director of the GEO Secretariat.

The Washington meeting will review emerging monitoring and information systems, web portals and data-sharing principles.

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Planting the knowledge seed: Adapting to climate change using ICTs

A recent report explore the practical linkages between climate change, access to and sharing of information and knowledge, communication for development and ICTs in general.

More specifically, the publication aims to: 1) Provide an overview of linking the strategic use of ICTs to climate change; 2) Summarize the discussions and conclusions of the BCO Learning Day on ICTs and Climate Change held in December 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa; 3) Demonstrate innovative applications through concrete project examples; and 4) Start a dialogue and stimulate a debate about the added value and applicability of ICTs in climate change programmes.

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FAO apoya al Gobierno de Chile en la creación de un modelo de gestión de riesgos agroclimáticos

El Subsecretario de Agricultura de Chile, Reinaldo Ruiz, y la Representante de la FAO en Chile, Margarita Flores, firmaron un convenio para apoyar la creación de un modelo de gestión del riesgo agroclimático.

“Lo que hemos aprendido en el ultimo tiempo en nuestro trabajo conjunto nos permite dar saltos cuantitativos importantes, ya que lo ganado en conocimiento nos permite avanzar hacia un modelo de gestión más desarrollado,” señaló el Subsecretario.

“Un sistema de gestión de riesgos es clave para reducir los impactos de los eventos climáticos extremos en las poblaciones más vulnerables y evitar pérdidas económicas”, señaló Margarita Flores, Representante de la FAO en Chile, durante la firma.

Conformado por el Minagri a partir de la experiencia que significaron las múltiples emergencias agrícolas que afectaron el país durante la temporada 2007-2008. Basa su articulación en el paso de una "gestión de crisis" a una "gestión de riesgos", es decir, busca formular e implementar medidas anticipatorias que disminuyan y/o mitiguen los efectos de un fenómeno climático extremo o catástrofe natural.

Entre sus objetivos, destaca el establecer un efectivo sistema de información para el monitoreo, alerta y evaluación de riesgos agroclimáticos.

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EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal

EarthTrends is a comprehensive online database that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world.

The Portal offers and an online collection of information regarding the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world. Committed to the principle that accurate information drives responsible decisions by governments and individuals, EarthTrends offers the public a large breadth of statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats.

Much of the environmental information on the internet is fragmented, buried, or only available at a price. EarthTrends gathers data from the world’s leading statistical agencies, along with WRI-generated maps and analyses, into a single database for rapid searching and retrieving. To facilitate the comparison of data from different sources, EarthTrends supplements its content with detailed metadata that reports on research methodologies and evaluates the information’s reliability. All of these resources are made available to the public at no charge.

Autralian Research Portal on Climate Change and Agriculture unveiled

A New on-line portal that brings together research on climate and agriculture by more than 40 Commonwealth and State Government organisations has been launched.

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Visit: www.aanro.net

Chile estudia construir un centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Geomática

El GEOIDE-Network y el Centro de Información de Recursos Naturales (CIREN), de Chile, se encuentran estudiando la viabilidad de crear en el país un Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Geomática, para generar información geográfica o espacial en áreas como salud, urbanismo, gestión de riesgos, cambio climático, agricultura o minería.

Así lo informó el CIREN, que en días recientes realizó un encuentro con el GEOIDE-Network, una red de centros de excelencia de origen canadiense, que reúne a los destacados expertos en geomática del mundo.

Las razones del acercamiento con GEOIDE-Network devienen del hecho que esta red integra a 32 universidades y 98 entidades globales, con representantes de los Estados de Australia, Corea del Sur, Francia, México y la Unión Europea, entre otros. Sobre la base de la información proporcionada por esta entidad, los profesionales del CIREN analizan las aplicaciones de la tecnología geomática en medios terrestres y marinos; gestión de transporte y catástrofes; salud y ciencias sociales; catástrofes naturales y medio ambiente; además de sensores y comercialización.

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Portal CIREN

Ademas:

• FAO apoya al Gobierno de Chile en la creación de un modelo de gestión de riesgos agroclimáticos
• CIREN y FAO firmaron convenio para compartir su información sobre recursos naturales de Chile

Conferencia Mundial examina el papel vital de la información y la predicción del clima

La agricultura representa el principal medio de subsistencia para el 70 por ciento de los pobres del mundo. Muchos de ellos son pequeños agricultores, ganaderos y pescadores, así como habitantes de los bosques, incluyendo grupos indígenas que viven en zonas sensibles al clima y son especialmente vulnerables a sus variaciones.

"El coste económico asociado a los desastres naturales, incluyendo los fenómenos climáticos extremos, se ha multiplicado por 14 en la agricultura desde la década de 1950", advirtió Alexander Mueller, Director General Adjunto para Recursos Naturales de la FAO, al intervenir durante la Tercera Conferencia Mundial sobre el Clima (CMC-3) que tiene lugar esta semana en Ginebra.

El objetivo de la Conferencia es establecer un marco internacional para guiar el desarrollo de los servicios climáticos y enlazar las predicciones y la información sobre el clima de base científica con la gestión de riesgos y la adaptación a las variaciones climáticas.

Numerosos casos de estudio han demostrado los beneficios de estrategias de adaptación localizadas, condicionadas por información climática fiable, para mejorar la producción de alimentos, los ingresos de los campesinos y la seguridad alimentaria, según Mueller.

Lea nota oficial de prensa FAO.

Visite además: Portal de FAO sobre Cambio Climático

FarmGAS: Software gratuito para optimizar explotaciones ganaderas y agrícolas en Australia

Una novedosa aplicación informática (FarmGAS) abrirá nuevas posibilidades en la agricultura y la ganadería. La aplicación desarrollada por el Instituto Agrícola de Australia con fondos destinados a la lucha contra el cambio climático.

La función de FarmGAS – que será gratuito - es lograr que las granjas y explotaciones tanto ganaderas como agrícolas sean más eficientes y, al tiempo, más respetuosas con el medio ambiente. La aplicación mide las emisiones de carbono generadas por cada explotación y propone la manera de reducirlas a través de su gestión una vez se han introducido los datos correspondientes a sus campos o ganado. Así pues logra maximizar la eficiencia de los piensos, la calidad de la carne, mide la conductividad eléctrica del suelo para predecir el riesgo de salinidad en los pastos y, atención a este dato, logra reducir las emisiones de gases de invernadero a la mitad en un año.

Philippines: Farmers call for better dissemination of weather information

An article in the Business Mirror reports on a paper from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

The paper recommends better strategies for disseminating information on climate and the weather and the construction of small-scale irrigation systems as strategies that can be undertaken by concerned government agencies to enable rice and corn farmers to cope with climate change.

“There is still a wide array of applicable tools that could help agricultural workers mitigate environmental challenges and decide intelligently in the face of seasonal uncertainties ...most important to consider in any development effort is the fit of the intervention on the needs and situations of the target population,” it said.

PIDS researchers noted that among the most pressing concerns aired by farmers is the absence of localized climate/weather forecasts. “Farmers really need to be provided with specific localized meteorological service if they are truly to gain the edge in the battle against seasonal climate variability. Another challenge is the lack of time-series data that can be used for developing forecasting models. There are no meteorological stations in all of the municipalities, It also noted existing meteorological stations which are relatively new or less than 50 years old do not have data long enough to establish significant patterns.

Aside from television and radio, the paper said government agencies could consider publishing print materials in layman form and written in the local dialect to disseminate weather and climate information.“An insured, well-informed and well-funded farmer has a better chance of surviving the challenges offered by seasonal climate variability,” said the PIDS researchers.

Sharing knowledge on African adaptation to climate change

Africa's most marginalised communities will be able to share their experiences of adapting to climate change thanks to a new fund that seeks to promote knowledge sharing across the continent.

AfricaAdapt, a network set up in May to aid the flow of information between stakeholders, launched a Knowledge Sharing Innovation Fund last month (16 June), offering grants of up to US$10,000 to projects testing new ways of sharing knowledge, such as theatre performances and radio broadcasts.

"Our expectation for AfricaAdapt is that communities in Africa who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change will be able to draw on information shared within the network — both scientific research and indigenous knowledge — and use it to cope with or become more resilient to climate-change impacts," says Jacqueline Nnam, knowledge-sharing officer at FARA.

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Habrá un sistema de alerta temprana del tiempo por sequía en la región patagónica Argentina

Como parte del programa regional de manejo sustentable de ecosistemas áridos y semiáridos para el control de la desertificación en la Patagonia, está en etapa de desarrollo el Sistema de Alerta Temprana (SAT), que relevará información, condiciones corporales de los animales y el estado de los pastizales.

El SAT integrará datos climáticos, imágenes satelitales, estado de los pastizales y la condición corporal de los animales para sugerir medidas de anticipación ante la sequía en la región. La etapa siguiente es la integración de la información en un modelo predictivo del tiempo que permita anticipar eventos como la actual prolongada sequía. Mientras tanto, se han instalado ocho estaciones de monitoreo, denominadas MARAS.

Lea el artículo completo.

Knowledge portal in India to help farmers deal with climate change

A recent conference in India saw the launch of 'Bhoogyan' - an Integrated Knowledge System on Climate Change Adaptation. This ICT-based knowledge delivery system aims to help poor communities adapt to changing climate. Arun Seth, Chairman, British Telecom India, commented: "While technology should be used as an enabler; sufficiency can only come through knowledge."

To help people around the world get involved in climate protection efforts, OneWorld has also launched the OneClimate.net Web site, a social networking space for sharing ideas and experiences on climate change.

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Weather info for all: Mobile communications to revolutionize African weather monitoring

The Global Humanitarian Forum and its President, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, together with Ericsson, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), mobile telecommunications company Zain, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, today announced a major initiative, dubbed "Weather Info for All", to radically improve Africa's weather monitoring network in the face of the growing impact of climate change. The partnership will deploy up to 5,000 automatic weather stations in mobile network sites accross Africa, where less than 300 are reporting today.

Approximately 70 percent of Africans rely on farming for their livelihood, or close to 700 million people, and over 95 percent of Africa's agriculture depends on rainfall. Changing weather patterns due to climate change render obsolete traditional knowledge relating to agriculture otherwise reliable for centuries, creating a great need for meteorological information. This partnership will also increase information via mobile phones to users and communities, including remote farmers and fishermen.

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the WMO said: "For food production, almost every decision is linked to weather, climate and water parameters. We see the Weather Info for All initiative as a major pan-African effort to empower our 188 Members to provide enhanced weather information and services".

First 19 stations deployed more than double Lake Victoria region weather monitoring, where 5,000 people die every due to storms and accidents. The initiative will have an impact far beyond agriculture and disaster preparation as it also includes assistance to national meteorological services in training and technical capacities. Better weather information will also make possible the development of services, such as microinsurance, which can be based on weather data indexes, such as rainfall. The initiative will also increase the volume of information useful for scientists, as well as for the water, transport and energy industries.

While the weather information gap is particularly acute in Africa, the initiative would be open to later expansion into other affected regions.

A further partner in the initiative is Columbia University's Earth Institute, headed by Jeffrey Sachs. To help with distribution to some of the most vulnerable and poorest parts of Africa and in partnership with the Earth Institute, automatic weather stations will also be installed in Millennium Villages - rural development projects spread throughout 10 countries and focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals. By leveraging the expertise of Earth Institute scientists on climatology, agriculture, and health, the project hopes to identify key areas where there can be an immediate impact contributing a sizable knowledge bank to the effort.

"The Earth Institute is a proud partner in this highly innovative program," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the institute. "Once the switch is turned on, a flow of extensive weather data will become available throughout Africa, with benefits extending from the national policy makers to the smallholder farmers. The Millennium Villages is a perfect launch site for the practical and timely application of weather data to bolster resilience and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa."

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Also: Weathering storms with telecoms

FAO y CIREN firmaron convenio para compartir su información sobre recursos naturales de Chile

Durante el 45 aniversario de CIREN, la Ministra de Agricultura de Chile destacó la importancia de compartir información.

Un convenio para compartir información, análisis, bases de datos, mapas e imágenes de satélite sobre recursos naturales de Chile firmaron hoy el Representante Regional de la FAO, José Graziano da Silva, y el Director del Centro de Información de Recursos Naturales de Chile, CIREN Rodrigo Álvarez Seguel, con la Ministra de Agricultura de Chile, Marigen Horkohl como testigo del acto.

El objetivo de esta cooperación entre la FAO y CIREN es contribuir al análisis de la situación y perspectivas de los recursos naturales en Chile en actividades agrícolas, ganaderas, forestales, pesqueras y acuícolas, así como también al análisis de tendencias de dichas áreas.

“Esta es una tarea que permite incluir a los más pequeños, a los agricultores todavía necesitados de ayuda y soporte, pero de una ayuda y un soporte que tienen un sustento científico, técnico, y de proyección al futuro”, afirmó la Ministra de Agricultura durante la apertura. Según Graziano, la forma en que el cambio climático afectará al agro y la influencia del sistema económico en el desarrollo de la actividad hacen necesarias este tipo de alianzas.

“El cambio climático aumenta la incertidumbre en un momento en que ya hay mucha volatilidad en los precios de los commodities internacionales. En tiempos de crisis, la información pública sobre recursos naturales tiene un rol fundamental. El manejo de información oficial, confiable, que llega a todos los ciudadanos de forma gratuita es algo clave para el manejo de la incertidumbre por parte de la población,” señaló Graziano durante la firma del convenio.

Por su parte, el Director de CIREN afirmó que el conocimiento cabal de la riqueza del país, de la diversidad y el estado de sus recursos naturales, es clave para poder planificar políticas públicas exitosas. “No es lo mismo tomar decisiones a ciegas que tomar decisiones informados,” señaló.

La firma del convenio tuvo lugar durante las celebraciones del 45 aniversario de CIREN.

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Además: CIREN ofrece acceso abierto a su patrimonio documental.

El Centro de Información de Recursos Naturales de Chile (CIREN) ofrece acceso abierto a su patrimonio documental.

El CIREN, es una institución que proporciona información de recursos naturales renovables y ha logrado reunir la mayor base de datos georeferenciada de suelos, recursos hídricos, clima, información frutícola y forestal que existe en Chile, además del catastro de la propiedad rural. CIREN ha sido aporte en la resolución de problemas como sequías, inundaciones, conservación de los suelos, y para los diagnósticos de reconstrucción en zonas afectadas por desastres naturales.

En la actualidad, el Centro articula el convenio de cooperación entre el Ministerio de Agricultura y la Agencia Chilena del Espacio, para acceder y administrar los datos espaciales del satélite SSOT en la codificación, el procesamiento de información satelital, y la interpretación de imágenes y datos referentes a la agricultura y recursos naturales.

En el 2007, se adjudicó a CIREN el proyecto “Conversión a formatos digitales de la documentación de Recursos Naturales impresa y su liberación al ciber-espacio”, presentado al Concurso Nacional para proyectos de innovación de interés público e innovación pre-competitiva de Innova Chile. De esta manera el Centro de Documentación en Línea de CIREN digitalizó el patrimonio documental de mayor demanda y vigencia sobre recursos naturales, fortaleciendo y ampliando su acceso abierto y gratuito.

Su repositorio de documentos se encuentra en su Biblioteca Digital de Recursos Naturales y ha sido desarrollado con el reconocido software libre Greenstone.