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The Madeira River Navigation and Improvement Project provides a unique opportunity to incorporate nature-based solutions (NbS) into the built environment to promote sustainable communities and water resources infrastructure. The Madeira River has no major physical interventions (river training structures, navigation locks and dams, etc.) to improve navigation, and so is one of the world's last remaining undeveloped megarivers that exhibits natural morphological processes. The objective of this study is to create a safe, reliable, and sustainable navigation channel in the Madeira River. This is being accomplished by designing navigation improvement measures that leverage natural geomorphic processes of the river while minimizing conventional engineering practices that alter the river's morphology. To meet this objective, fluvial geomorphology analysis and hydrodynamic modeling studies have been performed to improve understanding of the morphological behavior of the system. Measures that incorporate beneficial reuse of dredged sediment within the system are being prioritized and incorporated into the study's design. Natural processes are being leveraged through the implementation of an adaptive management process to shape the navigation channel by incorporating the use of dynamic structures using natural local materials (e.g., large woody debris already in the system), a direct application of NbS in practice. This process includes extensive stakeholder collaboration and utilizing nature's energy to balance navigation, ecological, and social benefits along the Madeira River. This project demonstrates that nature-based approaches not only provide navigation benefits but can also provide ecological and social benefits in ways that are sustainable in the long term, consistent with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's global standard for NbS. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:115-122. © 2021 SETAC. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA., (© 2021 SETAC. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.)

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how the processes of memory acquisition, retention, retrieval and application occur in project-based organizations (PBOs). In this kind of organization, the nature of corporate memory is influenced by the transience, uniqueness and independence of the project portfolio. Such understanding may help practitioners to mitigate the effects of project transience and promote knowledge sharing among project teams. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical and qualitative study was carried out through a multiple case study approach conducted in three Brazilian Engineering Design Firms, which are organized by projects. Document analysis, direct observation and semi-structured interviews with engineers, project managers and executives were conducted. Findings: The memory acquisition process takes place in five forms which have different sources and destinations when comparing PBOs with traditional organizational settings. Memory retention in PBOs crosses organizational boundaries and establishes a knowledge network of former employees and third parties. The PBOs project memory can be divided into volatile and perennial memory, where the former can be lost throughout project execution and the latter is internalized, becoming an inseparable part of the corporate memory. Memory retrieval in PBOs is also distinct since it has particular mechanisms depending on whether the knowledge is technical or administrative. Originality/value: The research investigates the corporate memory processes within the volatile context of PBOs in a Latin-American developing country whose culture favors tacit knowledge exchange. The paper proposes a framework that unveils different patterns of knowledge acquisition, temporary and perennial retention structures, intensive usage of external knowledge in memory retrieval and particular memory applications in PBOs. The framework may guide scholars, project managers, engineers and practitioners in navigating through the uniqueness of organizational learning flows and structures in PBOs.

Engineering and technology have a central role in shaping our reality that frequently goes unnoticed or not critically analyzed by engineers and engineering faculty and curricula. In so doing, the engineering that is taught, investigated (and improved), and practiced can unwittingly foster an ethical-political reality with which many engineers and engineering teachers may disagree. In this paper, drawing on literature from philosophy and sociology of technology and Latin-American liberating and decolonial traditions, the theoretical bases for a different engineering practice are set; an engineering committed to empowering people and constructing with them other possible socio-technical orders (and ethical-political realities). It can be called decolonial engineering. Then, grassroots (or popular) engineering, as it is practiced, taught, and improved (investigated) by some Brazilian university extension centres and groups, is presented and analyzed according to its decolonial foundations and outcomes. Finally, from grassroots engineering experience, some general traits of decolonial engineering education and research are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of forestry programs in Brazil, including a comparative analysis with other countries while considering geographical factors. Over the past 25 years, the number of forestry programs in Brazil has increased from 43 to 75, leading to a rise in the annual number of graduates from 850 to 1500. Nevertheless, our findings reveal that only 60% of the available vacancies at universities are filled. On average, each institution enrolls 169 students (from 40 to 360 students per program). We also observed that, on average, each program employs 13 professors with a background in forest engineering (from 4 to 33). The results show that, among the professors from the ten oldest programs in the country, 78% had no prior professional experience outside academia, and 48% remained affiliated with the same university where they completed their undergraduate or graduate studies. There is a concerning and significant decline in the number of applicants for forestry programs, representing a strategic risk for the country. We identified a direct relationship between the number of programs, the population size, and the country's total forest cover area when comparing Brazil with 12 other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results obtained from a group of simple and basic procedures used to assess slope instability in terms of shallow landslides on data-scarce hillsides at the slope unit scale. The procedures are based on engineering geological mapping to obtain geological and geotechnical data and on an adapted Hovland 3D safety factor (SF 3D) associated with a van Genuchten infiltration model to simulate the rainfall percolation. The procedures were applied on a data-scarce hillside in the Campos do Jordão municipality located in the Mantiqueira Mountains, São Paulo state, Brazil. This area was chosen because it is affected by shallow landslides due to a loss of shear strength when suction decreases or dissipates due to rainfall infiltration. The combined procedures permitted the total SF 3D to be obtained from the partial SF of each grid cell (considering 4 different rainfall events and quasi-saturation conditions) and the failure probability (SF 3D < 1) and marginal probability (1

The present work presents some examples of data originated from a set of investigations developed in Brazil, at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the State of Ceará - IFCE, in the context of teacher education, and the consideration of elements of a historical, mathematical, and evolutionary nature. Thus, from a perspective of theoretical complementarity involving the research elements derived from the notion of the didactic engineering for development and some assumptions of the French aspect of the professional didactics, two sets of data are discussed. The first set involved research carried out between 2017 and 2020. The second set considered involved studies still under development in Brazil, considering the period of 2020 - 2023. The historical landscape of investigation rests on considering the recurring number sequences of Fibonacci, Lucas, Pell, Jacobsthal, Coordonier or Padovan, Perrin, Mersenne, Oresme, Naraynna, and Leonardo. Furthermore, in a broad sense, the study aims to provide a learning scenario for the teacher, affected by a perspective of mathematical knowledge evolution, including the repercussions and applications with current technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]