Search

This study investigated the influence of land use on water quality parameters in the subtropical basin of Jundiaí-Mirim river. Water samples were collected to measure nutrients concentration and direct measurements by multiparameter probe were performed, as well as landscape analysis, using satellite images and visits in the sampling sites, besides analysis of population density data. Data were standardized and the correlation between the variables was measured using Spearman approach. Land use in the surrounding area of the sampling points had strong and significant correlations (p < 0.05) with some of the water quality parameters evaluated. These correlations had different causes, explained by the land use in a 50 m radius, or 500 m radius, or even beyond these environments studied. Landscape analysis has proved to be an important tool for understanding the interaction between water quality and land use.

In Brazil, virus epidemics transmitted by Aedes aegypti have been fought, through the most varied methods, all with the same objective of avoiding the reproduction of the mosquito. Some data indicate that in the Northeast region these breeding foci are mainly found in urban water reservoirs. In this context, geotechnology emerges with an innovative model, endowed with modern and technological tools, to assist in actions to combat this mosquito. The objective of this work is to show the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which, due to its speed, high spatial resolution and low cost, allows aerial images of a neighborhood with a high incidence of mosquitoes in the city of Caicó/RN. The images captured on the Raimundo Silvino da Costa neighborhood were subjected to geoprocessing and remote sensing techniques, thus enabling the identification of visible and probable mosquito breeding foci. The results obtained will allow the knowledge of the spatial distribution of the problem in the municipality and will be sent to the public authority, which will use the monitoring data for the planning and execution of extinction actions of the identified foci.

Geomorphological mapping of geomorphosites should allow the identification and characterization of the landforms that comprise the geoheritage of these places and demand actions of geoconservation and geotourism. The objective of this study was to identify and analyse the areas with the largest spatial concentration of landforms that comprises the geomorphological heritage elements in Guaritas do Camaquã geomorphosite – Rio Grande do Sul state – Brazil. Using as the starting point the geomorphological map (1:50,000) produced by Santos (2016), the following methodological procedures were performed: (a) selection of the vector data from the geomorphological map and their conversion to raster data; (b) classification of raster data regarding the values of spatial concentration of the geomorphological features into null, very low, low, medium, high and very high; (c) individualization and reclassification of the very high and high values of spatial concentration of the geomorphological features (given value 1), and the other values (given value 0); and (e) overlap of information with value (1) to verify the spatial coexistence of areas with high concentration of geomorphological features. The results allowed to identify the location and the extension of the areas where high concentrations of geomorphological features coexist, and to identify the geomorphological heritage elements that demand priority in geoconservation actions. Some of these geomorphological heritage elements are already part of geotouristic routes, as Pedra das Guaritas, while others are isolated and little explored. Such spatial arrangements of the landforms must be incorporated to the geotouristic routes to integrate the geomorphological heritage elements present in the geomorphosite.

Soil degradation caused by erosion is one of the biggest environmental problems. The Geographic Information System (GIS) QGIS and ArcGIS were used to prepare thematic maps. The average slope resulted in smooth wavy (42.1%), flat (27.8%), and wavy to strong wavy (19.9%) over the entire length of the sub-basin. Erodibility resulted in very high (41%) mainly in sectors with a predominance of Neossolos Quartzarênicos soils, on average (7.1%) in the South and Southwest and low (51.1%) of the area corresponding to the soil of the type Dystrophic Yellow Latosol. The expansion of the agribusiness associated with inadequate soil management in areas susceptible to erosion at BHRG can compromise long-term environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It is important to develop suitable agricultural techniques appropriate to the soil to optimize its use and its sustainable production capacity.

Brazil confronts a challenge to implement the Forest Code, now called Native Vegetation Protection Law (LPVN), issued in 2012 under the number 12.651/12. The law introduced new mechanisms to quantified environmental liabilities in Permanent Protection Areas (APP) and Legal Reserve Areas (RL). Thus, this study presents a methodological proposal for calculation of environmental liabilities in areas of "water" permanent preservation and legal reserve using geoprocessing tools. This way, a complex analysis was required, based on the size of the private rural properties, the type of land use/cover, and “temporal cut”, for which there is no methodology defined. The “temporal cut” was defined to fine cancel those who practiced illegal deforestation prior to 22 July 2008, thus creating the figure of the "Consolidated Productive Areas”. This methodology was tested and applied in the municipality of São Félix do Xingu-PA and the results pointed to a total environmental liability of the municipality of 178,835 hectares by 2010. According to requirements established in article 61-A, the settlements were considered rural properties with consolidated productive areas, and thus benefited by law. Despite this, it is important to improve environmental education techniques and the recovering of environmental liabilities of settlements, mainly for sustainable production purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphometry of the sub-basin of the river Ribeirão, western Amazon, Brazil, is characterized. Geometric, topographic and hydrographic characteristics were obtained by QGIS 2.10.1, mainly by TauDEM, a digital model of field elevation and calculating tool based on altimeter data of the SRTM project. The sub-basin of the river Ribeirão comprises 50 microbasins, mean altitude 153 m, predominating between plane and rolling reliefs, with a 6th order dendritic pattern, hydrographic density 0.66 rivers km-2, drain density 1.05 km km-2 and maintenance coefficient of 950.32 m2 m-1. The greatest micro-basins of the river Ribeirão belong to the rivers Ribeirão, Araras, Misericórdia and Taquaras, with areas 1,118.00, 628.51, 194.73 and 159.26 km2, respectively. Micro-basins have an elongated shape, low flooding susceptibility, straight to divergent main channels and concentration period between 10.10 and 24.46 h. The sub-basin of the river Ribeirão and its main micro-basins have a great potential of agricultural mechanization and the implantation of irrigation systems on farms. Integrated management practices for soil conservation are recommended coupled to the maintenance of native forest covering in the Preservation Areas and Permanent Preservation Areas so that the hydric resources of the region may be preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in Remote Sensing (Digital Elevation Models) products and GIS techniques have made the calculation and analysis of morphometric indices much more accurate, effective, and less time-consuming. The energy of relief is a morphometric parameter that indicates the vertical variety of relief and represents the potential energy of a given terrain. Calculating morphometric parameters by manual methods is inconvenient because it takes a long time, is subject to mistakes that can be made by humans when extracting these parameters and, consequently leads to wrong conclusions. There is currently no fully automated method to calculate this parameter. The purpose of this paper is to define the procedures for extracting this parameter within a GIS environment using data from high resolution (HR) ALOS-PALSAR (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-Phased Array-Type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) Radiometrically Terrain Corrected (RTC) DEM with a spatial resolution of 12.5 m with the help of ArcGIS software. To calculate this parameter, a grid with 1x1 km cells with interpolation points in each cell was constructed. IDW was chosen as the most suitable method for the interpolation of points. Based on the obtained results, the maximum value of relief's energy for the Drenica River basin reaches 328 m/km2. 57.19% of the surface belongs to the low and very low values of relief's energy, 42.72% belongs to the average values while only 0.09% belongs to the high values. The high participation of very small and small values of this parameter for the Drenica River basin indicates that the total area is increasing towards the creation of flat surfaces. The importance of deriving this parameter is reflected in the fact that the data obtained are quantitative (have numerical value), can be verified and applicable in practice for the purposes of the construction sector, tourism, spatial planning, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is characterized as one of the main problems in the Brazilian semiarid region. Despite the great environmental importance that water resources present, each day they are going through an intense process of degradation and contamination. In this perspective, the research aims to map the areas vulnerable to water contamination of an aquifer system located in the Serra Olho d'água dos Constantinos in the municipality of Redenção (CE). For this, the GOD method (Groundwater hydraulic confinement, Overlaying strata, Depth to groundwater table) was used to identify the natural vulnerability of the aquifer, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the springs, through macroscopic parameters related to anthropic use and measures of conservation in the springs, and the mapping of areas susceptible to contamination, by crossing the natural vulnerability with the contaminating loads identified in loco. It was identified that the use of water is mainly intended for domestic activities (45.5%) and human consumption (36%). Regarding the degree of preservation of the springs, it was observed that most were classified as poor and poor state of conservation (55.5%). Natural vulnerability was classified as non-existent and low, with a GOD index of 0.0 to 0.11. The main sources of contamination mapped were agriculture, domestic effluents and buildings, resulting in two areas with a high risk of water contamination. Thus, it is concluded that the results presented corroborate for a situational analysis of the water resource, indicating the areas that most need care, so that, thus, it can avoid the degradation and contamination of the resource so necessary to the community and of great environmental importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite imaging combined with geoprocessing routines is a promising alternative to establish a viable mapping model of specific landscape features and soil use, with high precision, fast results, and low operational costs. The present study examines the employment of a digital elevation model (DEM) combined with geoprocessing techniques for identifying closed depressions in karst landscapes with the objective of mapping potential sinkholes and uvalas within the limits of the Carste Lagoa Santa Environmental Protection Unit, located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The proposed method consists of using geoprocessing routines combined with DEMs, topographic analysis, individual points of elevation, and mathematical operations between rasters. To accomplish that, SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission) data/images were used to extract contour lines and individual elevation points to identify depressions, delimit their edges, and obtain morphometric data referring to the area, perimeter, and their circularity index. The results were satisfactory, allowing the detection of 1076 depressions within the study area. The results were also analyzed for special morphological cases and circularity patterns and compared with a previous study. Field campaigns allowed the partial validation of the method, which proved to be a viable alternative for preliminary and extensive scale mapping of these important karst recharge features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leptospirosis is a serious bacterial infection that occurs worldwide, with fatality rate of up to 40% in the most severe cases. The number of cases peaks during the rainy season and may reach epidemic proportions in the event of flooding. It is possible that people living in areas affected by natural disasters are at greater risk of contracting the disease. The aim of this study was to identify clusters of relatively higher risk for leptospirosis occurrence, both in space and time, in six municipalities of Santa Catarina, Brazil, which had the highest incidence of the disease between 2000 and 2016, and to evaluate if these clusters coincide with the occurrence of natural disasters. The cases were geocoded with the geographic coordinates of patients’ home addresses, and the analysis was performed using SaTScan software. The areas mapped as being at risk for hydrological and mass movements were compared with the locations of detected leptospirosis clusters. The disease was more common in men and in the age group from 15 to 69 years. In the scan statistics performed, only space-time showed significant results. Clusters were detected in all municipalities in 2008, when natural disasters preceded by heavy rainfall occurred. One of the municipalities also had clusters in 2011. In these clusters, most of the cases lived in urban areas and areas at risk for experiencing natural disasters. The interaction between time (time of disaster occurrence) and space (areas at risk of experiencing natural disasters) were the determining factors affecting cluster formation.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been established as the appropriate policy framework to study and resolve conflicts that arise among various activities. A pre-requisite for the successful implementation of MSP is the availability of efficient tools to support decision-makers and enhance stakeholders’ engagement. In this paper, a webGIS application is proposed that is able to assess the intensity of conflicts among marine activities; the area of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea was used as a case study. The webGIS application allows the visualization of existing activities, the delineation of conflicting activities, the detection of areas where multiple conflicts co-exist, and the delineation of areas of conflicts based on specific criteria. The webGIS application is available via a user-friendly interface as well as allowing interaction with users by providing them the opportunity to comment on the results and/or exchange ideas with other users of various groups; therefore, the participatory process, a creative stage in MSP, is further supported. The usefulness of such tools in coastal and marine planning and the decision-making process are further discussed.

The Atlantic Forest is the most fragmented Brazilian biome due to human impacts, mainly from urban expansion and agricultural activities. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the temporal dynamics of human expansion in the municipality of Maringá, in the state of Paraná. We seek to assess the general changes in the landscape as well as the specific dynamics of land use and land cover in the riparian zone of urban and peri-urban rivers in the municipality. For this, land use and land cover data from the years 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019, from the MapBiomas project were used, reclassified into four categories: Natural Forest, Natural Non-Forest, Urban Anthropic and Non-Urban Anthropic. The main results were (i) Most of the Maringá territory, in the analyzed period, was composed by the Non-Urban Anthropic category; (ii) The greatest growth was in the Urban Anthropic category and the smallest in the Natural Non-Forest category; (iii) In the analysis of riparian zones, there was a high participation of the Non-Urban Anthropic category, despite this decreasing over time. In addition, the Natural Forest category grew in all hydrographic basins, while the Urban Anthropic category grew in some. In the general context, the dynamics of the anthropic expansion of the municipality of Maringá, in the period between 1989 and 2019, was represented mostly by the replacement of agricultural areas by urban areas. In addition, there was an increase in the forest area in the riparian zone of urban and peri-urban rivers and a recent emergence of urban infrastructure in some hydrographic basins, to the detriment of a reduction in agricultural area. In this last point, we hope that the results of this work can be used by the government in identifying the most vulnerable regions to human actions on natural areas in the municipality, contributing to the implementation of improvements in the planning of land use and cover in Maringá. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) play an essential role in environmental stability, maintenance of life, protection and conservation of natural resources. Despite the legal protection, the minimum regulated parameters are not observed. Given this context, this study has as main objective to identify and analyze land use conflicts in APP, in the municipality of Presidente Epitácio, state of São Paulo, considering Federal Law nº 12727, of October 17, 2012 as a criterion, which provides for the protection of native vegetation in Brazil, in force. For the development of the research, a bibliographic survey was carried out; land cover and use mapping; identification of land use conflicts in APP using GIS techniques and field work. The results indicated areas that should be destined to APP are occupied by other classes such as pasture; discovered area; temporary and permanent farming; sugar cane farming; forestry; land uses associated with mining and urbanized area. The identified scenario was worrisome, with several watercourses lacking APP, or in insufficient conditions to protect water bodies against erosive processes, silting and contamination, making it difficult to increase the infiltration of rainwater and maintenance and recharge of groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation units are impacted over the years by the process of anthropization in their areas, such as the Chapadas das Mesas National Park (PNCM), located in the southern state of Maranhão, between the municipalities of Carolina, Estreito and Riachão, which already has significant changes in its natural characteristics. It is inserted in the Cerrado biome, with great ecological biodiversity and the existence of numerous springs that supply mainly the Tocantins river basin. In this context, the general objective is to comparatively analyze the effects of land use and land cover of the Chapadas das Mesas National Park in 2007 and 2017, worked on the 100,000 scale. The methodology used in this research consisted of bibliographic review and the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS), with the SPRING and QGIS software to structure the geographic data. Among the results achieved, the most aggravating factor is the increase in agriculture with cyclic crops and burning, because of the increase in human occupation within this conservation unit. Research using remote sensing is considered of paramount importance in supporting procedures and strategies for improving National Parks planning and territorial management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest global threats to biodiversity is habitat loss. In the 20th century, deforestation increased in the tropical domain, the most biodiverse area on the planet. The main strategy in the protection of natural habitats has been the creation of protected areas. One of the ways to assess the effectiveness of protected areas is by monitoring the original coverage. This article aimed to compare deforestation between categories of protected areas and a sample of unprotected areas of Legal Amazon in 2017. It was found that 45.2% of the Legal Amazon territory is in protected areas: 23.0% in indigenous lands, 7.7% in full protection conservation units, and 14.5% in sustainable use conservation units. It was also verified that 20% of the forest areas of the Legal Amazon had been deforested until 2017. Statistical analyses of deforestation values led to the formation of two sets. Set 1, effective in containing deforestation: indigenous lands (11.4% deforested); full protection conservation units (16.9% deforested); sustainable use conservation units, category 1 - Sustainable Development Reserve, Extractive Reserve and Government Forest (10.4% deforested). Set 2, without effectivity in containing deforestation: sustainable use conservation units, category 2 - Environmental Protection Area, Area of Relevant Ecological Interest and Private Natural Heritage Reserve (35.8% deforested); Non-Protected Area (38.0% deforested). In the effective protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Legal Amazon, it is recommended to create full protection conservation units. Alternately, sustainable use conservation units, category 1 (public lands), or indigenous territories should be created because they are essential for conserving the sociocultural diversity of the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to analyze the sustainability to water erosion in the Capim river/PA-MA. Acquired precipitation (GPCC), slope (TOPODATA project), land use and land cover data (MapBiomas) and pedology (Brazilian Soil Classification System) were obtained. Based on these variables, in a Geographic Information System environment, the product representing the sustainability to soil water erosion was generated. A sustainability gradient for soil water erosion was observed in the SE-NW direction, where it was higher near the mouth of the Capim River. The other variables were: clinical component presenting predominance of stability and high sustainability in the south of the basin; land use influences the entire axis of the basin, indicating instability in the medium-low Capim and in the extreme southeast. It was observed that the sustainability to erosion in the Capim watershed is motivated by intensified land use near the mouth. The zoning carried out in the basin is a warning sign for the municipalities of São Domingos do Capim, Rondon do Pará and Goianésia do Pará. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent preservation areas contribute significantly to maintaining the quality of water resources and protecting against erosive events. In this sense, this work mains of is to analyze the land use conflict in the permanent preservation areas of the Marapanim River basin, located in the northeast of the State of Pará. To this end, it data were processed using images Landsat of the years of 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2017 to discuss changes in land use for each year. Afterwards, land use was overlapped with the Permanent Preservation Areas of the basin (PPA), to identify the types of use that are interfering in the limits that should be maintained as PPA. The results showed that in three of the four years of analysis, the exposed soil class was present in more than 20% of the inadequate land use in PPA, followed by the Farming class, which increased almost 300% the occupation in PPA in the first to last year of study. Thus, this study can support public policies in order to monitor the sources and margins of water courses for a better management of water resources in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatialization of social data allows to analyze some social and territorial characteristics of census tracts up to the totality of a city or metropolitan region. The objective of this study was to verify the spatial autocorrelation of data that reflect the health and income conditions of households in the Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba (MRS) and verify if there is a correlation of these indicators by a multiple linear regression test. For this, the Global and Local Moran Index was calculated, which were used to measure autocorrelation and spatial dependence among the census tracts. It was identified that there are 177 census tracts distributed by MRS that showed autocorrelations for all variables and correspond to 31.1% of the territory and 5.4% of the total population of MRS. This study can be used by public managers to develop public policies aimed at improving the quality of life of the population because allows the identification of the regions that go beyond the administrative limits of the municipalities that lack collective investment and cooperation of municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Identifying potential environmental services associated with different land use and occupation in an urban watershed in Campinas, São Paulo. Methodology: Spatialization in GIS software of land use and occupation followed by qualitative and quantitative analysis of data with field verification. In this survey, it is assumed that the percentage of probable supply of environmental services in a watershed is exclusively associated to the typology of use and occupation in it. Relevance: Urban advancement, industrial development and unsustainable agricultural practices have altered the quantity and quality of environmental services provided by natural ecosystems, reflecting changes in land use. Results: 42.3% of the total area of the basin has conditions of use and occupation of the soil capable of providing component services of the four categories of services. The category of forest fragments is such that the provision of services occurs in greater quantity in the study basin, with a percentage of provision of 88.9%, followed by the category of green area (66.7%), agricultural activity and water resources (63% each) and exposed soil (15%). Contributions: The diagnosis of ecosystem and environmental services in the Ribeirão das Pedras basin may support Payment for Environmental Services programs and assist in the implementation of management standards for environmental conservation and recovery. Conclusion: The method applied to survey the potential supply of ecosystem and environmental services by watershed made it possible to understand the relationships between land use and occupation and services offered, as well as the priority areas for action by the municipal authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil degradation caused by erosion is one of the biggest environmental problems. The Geographic Information System (GIS) QGIS and ArcGIS were used to prepare thematic maps. The average slope resulted in smooth wavy (42.1%), flat (27.8%), and wavy to strong wavy (19.9%) over the entire length of the sub-basin. Erodibility resulted in very high (41%) mainly in sectors with a predominance of Neossolos Quartzarênicos soils, on average (7.1%) in the South and Southwest and low (51.1%) of the area corresponding to the soil of the type Dystrophic Yellow Latosol. The expansion of the agribusiness associated with inadequate soil management in areas susceptible to erosion at BHRG can compromise long-term environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It is important develop suitable agricultural techniques appropriate to the soil to optimize its use and its sustainable production capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to develop an anthropic exposure indicator for river basins using quantitative and qualitative aspects of the landscape and morphometric analysis based on fuzzy logic and geoprocessing. The indicator was developed from a Mamdani type fuzzy inference system by integrating information regarding the calculation of the anthropic transformation index and the circularity index of the river basin and its watersheds. The anthropic transformation was obtained from the mapping of land and forest use plotted by visual interpretation of the orthorectified multispectral satellite image of RapidEye. The circularity index was calculated using the area of the territorial limits of the study area. The basin presented thirteen classes of uses, with a greater predominance of the anthropic agricultural area, occupied by temporary crops in approximately 3472 ha (36.33%). The vegetation cover has a greater predominance of forest fragments of dense Ombrophylous forest that measure approximately 3589 ha (37.05%). The indicator showed a medium to high anthropogenic exposure for the basin. Watershed 8 showed a high to very high exposure. The exposure indicator is a tool that details the anthropic exposure of watersheds based on the reality of the activities that occur within it and the morphometric capacity. It can be used for similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Labor & Engenho is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Anuario do Instituto de Geociencias is the property of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Geociencias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Anuario do Instituto de Geociencias is the property of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Geociencias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociedade & Natureza is the property of Sociedade & Natureza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Geoprocessing is a set of tools that can be used to efficiently address several pressing challenges for the global economy ranging from agricultural productivity, the design of transport networks, to the prediction of climate change and natural disasters. This paper describes an Open Source Framework developed, within three European projects, for Ena-bling High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Cloud geoprocessing services applied to agricultural challenges. The main goals of the European Union projects EUXDAT (EUro-pean e-infrastructure for eXtreme Data Analytics in sustainable developmenT), CYBELE (fostering precision agriculture and livestock farming through secure access to large-scale HPC-enabled virtual industrial experimentation environment empowering scalable big data analytics), and EOPEN (opEn interOperable Platform for unified access and analysis of Earth observatioN data) are to enable the use of large HPC systems, as well as big data management, user-friendly access and visualization of results. In addition, these projects focus on the development of software frameworks, and fuse Earth-observation data, such as Copernicus data, with non-Earth-observation data, such as weather, environmental and social media information. In this paper, we describe the agroclimatic-zones pilot used to validate the framework. Finally, performance metrics collected during the execution (up to 182 times speedup with 256 MPI processes) of the pilot are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ambiente e Água is the property of Revista Ambiente e Agua and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to analyze the supervision classification technique in the context of Remote sensing, as well as to emphasize and discuss how the monitoring of land use and cover has been an increasingly frequent practice and assumes special prominence, when it comes to monitoring the terrestrial surface, be it environmental and/or other purposes. To fulfill the objective, a literature review based on bibliometric analysis was carried out on the two main terms "Remote Sensing" and "Land use and cover", through which it was possible to diagnose which are the main countries producing scientific content on the topic, the main journals used for scientific dissemination and the evolution of research over the years. Thus, it was possible to diagnose that land use and coverage is still not widely disseminated outside the professions that work with this type of survey, therefore, this study concludes that the methodology of land use and coverage coupled with remote sensing techniques has a great importance, whether in the technical or academic world and is evolving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Dengue has become a serious public health problem for the Brazilian population, especially in urban environments. The disease is directly related to the proliferation and infestation index of the vector, which in turn depends on environmental factors that drive its multiplication. In this sense, this study aimed to understand the causes of the significant increase of Dengue in Mato Grosso in the period between 2011 and 2015. So, we analyzed the temporospatial variation of cases of Dengue notifications provided by the State Department of Health, in order to investigate the hypothesis that such expressive increase of the disease in this period could be related, above all, to socio-environmental conditions. It can be seen through the study that in the last few years there has been an alarming increase in the rates of dengue in most of the municipalities of the state of Mato Grosso and in all sectors of the territory of the state, and in those in which The weathering rate has been very different.

In recent years flood problems have intensified in the city of Rondonópolis, mainly due to increased soil waterproofing and changes in the original layout of waterways. This paper aims to discuss the evolution of episodes and for this purpose, records of occurrences in the media were analyzed and interviews were conducted with residents of the most affected areas to analyze the social repercussions of floods. A total of 15 episodes from 1979 to 2015 were verified by the media and that the frequency increased from 2003. However, by the statements of residents this frequency is much higher, and the losses produced are reflected both by the destruction of their goods and belongings and public equipment (asphalt paving, bridges, etc.). It is concluded that the problem of floods in Rondonópolis stems directly from the lack of urban planning and environmental changes made in the urban site without previous environmental studies

Abstract: This paper systematically assessed trends of aquatic ecology publications related to the urbanization growth during three decades (1990-2010) in Santa Catarina Island. The study was carried out in fifteen watersheds of Santa Catarina Island, located in Florianópolis city, Southern Brazil. Geoprocessing and scientometry tools were used to analyze the evolution of urban areas and publications, respectively, related to these watersheds during three decades. The QGIS software was used to delimitate the catchment area of each watershed and contrast those areas with the built-up area for each decade, therefore obtaining the percentage of area covered with buildings and impervious surfaces. A gradient was created allowing the classification of the watersheds related to the urbanized area percentage, resulting in 5 groups of urbanization (0-5%; 5-10%; 10-20%; 20-30%; >30% of urbanization). Aquatic ecology publications were obtained from several scientific and academic databases and used in the scientometric analysis. The number of publications by decade, document type, knowledge area and watershed of study were recorded. Growth of urbanized areas was mainly evidenced since the 2000s and showed a moderate positive relationship with the number of publications in ecology of aquatic systems in the Santa Catarina Island during the same period. However, differences between watersheds were observed, since the most urbanized watersheds were not necessarily the ones with the largest number of publications. Urban gradient evidenced in Santa Catarina Island offers an opportunity to investigate the impacts of human disturbance on aquatic ecology, water quality and stream communities. Furthermore, the low number of research projects might be contributing to the decline in biological integrity due to the lack of knowledge for evaluation and management in these environments.

O processo de licenciamento nuclear envolve a preparação de vários documentos, como Relatório local (SR), Relatório preliminar de análise de segurança (PSAR), Relatório final de análise de segurança (FSAR), Planos de proteção física, Planos de proteção contra violência e Planos de emergência que devem ser tratados pela Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN) para estimar. Este trabalho apresenta uma análise e um guia para o uso de ferramentas de geoprocessamento na atualização de estudos ambientais autorizados para atualizar o Relatório do Local (SR) do Centro de Desenvolvimento de Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN).O principal objetivo é contribuir para agilizar a execução das etapas de execução no processo de licenciamento nuclear, como estruturar e executar estudos ambientais, planejar atividades de monitoramento ambiental etc. Para alcançar o objetivo, obter e obter dados disponíveis de alta disponibilidade nos vários grupos, usar um fluxograma metodológico para aquisição e tratamento de dados. O estudo desenvolvido foi usando o ArcMap 10.2 do ArcGis, especialmente a ferramenta analítica Model Builder. Essa ferramenta permitiu a (macro) esquematização da metodologia a partir das ferramentas GIS aplicadas, ou que apresenta como vantagens à eficiência e otimização do tempo de execução dos procedimentos em situações em que é necessário aplicar a mesma rotina de tarefas, além de editável, ou que oferece possibilidades de adaptação e melhorias.

Abstract: The objective of this work was to develop and provide a free web application able to generate thematic maps. The initiative aims to incorporate the functionalities of the “Software para Definição de Unidades de Manejo” (SDUM) desktop application, which has proven to be suitable for working with thematic maps and management zones, but that was only available for desktop computers. The developed web application was tested with real data from two agricultural fields located in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Thematic maps of soil and plant characteristics relevant to precision agriculture were created through the following interpolation methods: inverse distance, moving average, and nearest neighbor. The obtained results show that the usage of this web tool allows identifying areas with the same behavior toward soil variables, making it possible for the user to have a better and more accurate vision of the area to be worked on and to identify possible causes of variation in productivity. Because it is installed in a server with on-demand features, the software has a satisfactory performance from a functional point of view and can be accessed from any web environment.

The present article evaluates the changes on the vegetation distribution of the 3.83 km2 permanent preservation areas (PPAs) in the urban portion of Jaru city/ RO, which occurred in the period from colonization to the present time (1975 to 2016). For that, images from the Landsat satellites 2, 3, 5 and 8 were used based on geoprocessing techniques to generate spatial information, including field validations, that allowed the mapping of land use and occupation with the delimitation of classes: Urbanization, Anthropized Area and Forest. The data show that in the studied area, in the period of colonization (1975 to 1990), took place intense anthropic activities related to urbanization and agriculture, with a reduction in the distribution of the Forest class by 60.76% in the PPAs, before their delimitations. In the transition period (1990 to 2000), marked by the end of activities of POLONOROESTE and the beginning of PLANAFLORO (both development plans held in Rondônia), had as characteristic the low percentage variations in the indexes of Urbanization (+ 0.18%), Anthropized Area (-0.16% ) and Forest (-1.64%). The delimitations of the PPAs by the Brazilian Forest Code of 2012 in the post-colonization period (2000 to 2016), resulted in an increased distribution of the Forest class by 15.86% in the PPAs, related to its natural regeneration.

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of scientific papers that used spatial analysis tools in cases of leishmaniasis, in Brazil. The search for articles was carried out in PubMed, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Science databases. The keywords used in the identification of the articles were Thematic map AND Leishmaniasis, Spatial analysis AND Leishmaniasis, and Geoprocessing AND Leishmaniasis, in English language. A total of 360 articles were found, and 11 of them were analyzed after screening by title and abstract as well as reading of the full articles. The States studied were Sao Paulo, Acre, Maranhao, Piaui, Minas Gerais, Parana and Tocantins. Cutaneous leishmaniasis occurred predominantly in rural areas, with clusters in forest reserve regions or modified forest areas. Conversely, visceral leishmaniasis mainly occurred in peripheral and central urban areas associated with poorer environments and urban infrastructure, including worse sanitation. We conclude that the spatial distribution of leishmaniasis is closely related to the living environment of the risk population. The analyzed articles associated geospatial data with some risk factors for the disease, pointing out the locations where most cases occur, creating a relevant source to define control strategies.

The present work evaluates the effects of the colonization model on the distribution of vegetation, from the beginning to the most recent period (1975 to 2016), in the urban area of the city of Jaru - kRO, by using geotechnologies. For that, images of the satellite Landsat 2, 3, 5 and 8 were used based on geoprocessing techniques to generate spatial information that allowed the delimitation of portions of the terrain with the mapping of land use and occupation. The period between 1975 and 1990 was characterized by intense anthropic activity in the natural landscape due urbanization and agriculture, reducing the distribution of natural vegetation cover by 80.38% and increasing the distribution of water bodies by 0.26%. On the other hand, the period from 2000 to 2016 showed an increase of plant cover by 7.72% due to the natural regeneration of abandoned areas. This was possibly due to of the attempt to modify the environmental trend in the state of Rondônia, aiming to soften the scenario of native forest destruction as a result of the most intense period of this colonization.

This article presents the process of elaborating a web platform that allows the georeferenced data collection in the Twitter API. This platform is intended for people who do not have computer language knowledge, including GIS users, since it simplifies the data collecting method from this social network. Moreover, it enables the realization of up to twelve types of queries that result in georeferenced data. As a case study, queries were made with the ENEM term and spatial analyzes were performed and they are presented in heat maps. The results show that there are no other applications with the same particularities of the present proposal and show possibilities to perform spatial analyzes through the data capture in social networks and GIS processing.DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.20.2018.8

The Geodesign technique for which it is intended is an alternative exercise plan for a region of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, using a Geology base such as. The geodesy workshop was developed for the mining and construction of a territorial plan for a region. This result is the Decision Model, which is consistent with a study area and has demonstrated that the method used is assertive to landscape and territory planning.DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.20.2018.5

Abstract Background Chagas disease control programmes have decreased the prevalence of Chagas disease in Latin America. Together with migration to urban areas and increase in life expectancy, a new scenario for Chagas disease has emerged in Brazil with most patients currently elderly individuals living in urban areas. However, acute Chagas disease cases still occur due to vector transmission by sylvatic vectors and oral transmission by contaminated food. Therefore, we characterized the clinical and epidemiological profile of the patients followed at Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We aimed to identify the clinical forms, associated co-morbidities, and geographical areas where younger patients originate from. This will aid in the identification of potential challenges to be currently faced. Results This is a cross-sectional study. Adult patients with chronic Chagas disease were recruited between March 2013 and April 2016. Clinical and epidemiological data were obtained from electronic medical records and interviews. The clinical form of the Chagas disease presented by the patients was determined following the Brazilian Consensus on Chagas disease. Six hundred and nineteen patients (mean age 60 ± 12 years; 56.9% women) were included in this study. Patients’ clinical forms were classified as follows: indeterminate 29.1%; cardiac 55.4%; digestive 5.5%; and mixed 10.0%. Patients aged over 65 years comprised 38% of the population. Hypertension was present in 347 (56%) patients, dyslipidemia in 261 patients (42%) and diabetes mellitus in 185 patients (30%). There were no differences regarding gender, race, comorbidities frequency or place of origin across Chagas disease clinical forms. Most of the elderly population originated from Bahia, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco states, while most of the younger patients were born in Ceará, Paraíba and Rio de Janeiro states. Conclusions We described a great proportion of elderly patients in the composition of an urban Brazilian Chagas disease patient cohort with a high prevalence of comorbidities. We also identified a change in the pattern of the place of origin among younger patients.

Abstract Background Extra-Amazonian malaria mortality is 60 times higher than the Amazon malaria mortality. Imported cases correspond to approximately 90% of extra-Amazonian cases. Imported malaria could be a major problem if it occurs in areas with receptivity, because it can favor the occurrence of outbreaks or reintroductions of malaria in those areas. This study aimed to model territorial receptivity for malaria to serve as an entomological surveillance tool in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Geomorphology, rainfall, temperature, and vegetation layers were used in the AHP process for the receptivity stratification of Rio de Janeiro State territory. Results The model predicted five receptivity classes: very low, low, medium, high and very high. The ‘very high’ class is the most important in the receptivity model, corresponding to areas with optimal environmental and climatological conditions to provide suitable larval habitats for Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) vectors. This receptivity class covered 497.14 km2 or 1.18% of the state’s area. The ‘high’ class covered the largest area, 17,557.98 km2, or 41.62% of the area of Rio de Janeiro State. Conclusions We used freely available databases for modeling the distribution of receptive areas for malaria transmission in the State of Rio de Janeiro. This was a new and low-cost approach to support entomological surveillance efforts. Health workers in ‘very high’ and ‘high’ receptivity areas should be prepared to diagnose all febrile individuals and determine the cause of the fever, including malaria. Each malaria case must be treated and epidemiological studies must be conducted to prevent the reintroduction of the disease.

With regard to a multi-dimensional and multi-facetted implementation of the vision of a Digital Earth, capabilities to combine and analyze heterogeneous spatial data sources on the web are becoming increasingly important. In this article, an online system is conceptualized and implemented to facilitate spatial data analysis and decision making specifically for environmental applications. It supports a dynamic search and binding of suitable geoprocessing functionality with respect to the given input data and target description. Geoprocessing patterns are used to create an application-oriented abstraction layer on top of generic geoprocessing services available on the web. As an application scenario the determination and quality assessment for water body structures is taken. For this use case authoritative data, remote sensing imagery and citizen science data gets combined to gain a comprehensive picture of the various spatial, temporal and thematic aspects influencing the quality of inland waters. The prototypical implementation makes use of open standards to facilitate the integration with existing spatial data infrastructures.

In Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geoprocessing workflows allow analysts to organize their methods on spatial data in complex chains. We propose a method for expressing workflows as linked data, and for semi-automatically enriching them with semantics on the level of their operations and datasets. Linked workflows can be easily published on the Web and queried for types of inputs, results, or tools. Thus, GIS analysts can reuse their workflows in a modular way, selecting, adapting, and recommending resources based on compatible semantic types. Our typing approach starts from minimal annotations of workflow operations with classes of GIS tools, and then propagates data types and implicit semantic structures through the workflow using an OWL typing scheme and SPARQL rules by backtracking over GIS operations. The method is implemented in Python and is evaluated on two real-world geoprocessing workflows, generated with Esri's ArcGIS. To illustrate the potential applications of our typing method, we formulate and execute competency questions over these workflows.

Novel sensor technologies are rapidly emerging. They enable a monitoring and modelling of our environment in a level of detail that was not possible a few years ago. However, while the raw data produced by these sensors are useful to get a first overview, it usually needs to be post-processed and integrated with other data or models in different applications. In this paper, we present an approach for integrating several geoprocessing components in the TaMIS water dam monitoring system developed with the Wupperverband, a regional waterbody authority in Germany. The approach relies upon the OGC Web Processing Service and is tightly coupled with Sensor Observation Service instances running at the Wupperverband. Besides implementing the standardized XML-based interface, lightweight REST APIs have been developed to ease the integration with thin Web clients and other Web-based components. Using this standards-based approach, new processing facilities can be easily integrated and coupled with different observation data sources.

ABSTRACT This study demonstrates using remote sensing, geographic information systems and multivariate statistics to study water quality in an agricultural watershed. The monitoring of water quality in the watershed of Lontras's river in the southwestern region of the State of Paraná had been done in 2012 and 2013 with a multi-parameter probe in ten sites that were defined upstream and downstream watershed, during four different seasons. Mosaicked images were used from Google Earth, Digital Elevation Model and soil types of maps, defined as the explanatory variables. The definition of the areas of influence and multivariate statistical techniques, particularly the Redundancy Analysis (RDA), were used for the correlation between variables. In a spring area, located upstream watershed, the contribution on water quality variation has gotten smaller, when compared with the other monitoring sites. There was interference in water quality in downstream sites that has become greater due to the effects of diffuse pollution. The RDA enabled synthesizes the data variability structure and the relationship of multidimensional variables. These statistical techniques added to products resulting from the GIS contributed to a better understanding of the variation of water quality in the watershed.

Context: Asian countries have to confront with the global burden of cancer and various environmental factors predisposing the incidence. Geoinformatics can assist in spatial autocorrelation and statistical analysis in determining environmental and demographic correspondence to endemicity. What is of prime importance is the availability of the spatial datasets of cancer cases. Aims: The aim of this study was to reveal the distribution pattern of cancer and its magnitude in the eight panchayats of Sulthan Bathery Taluk of Wayanad district. The present study also attempted to develop and implement a data frame facilitating better data collection. Settings and Design: This was a taluk-level cross-sectional retrospective analysis and interventional study. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective survey created a geodatabase with 547 cancer cases registered along the timeline of 2015–2016. Input datasets were geocoded using Google Earth Pro software. Statistical Analysis Used: The analysis was performed using ArcMap-10.2 version. Results: Registration revealed the high breast cancer incidences and temporal increment mainly in town areas. The incidence depicted male predominance and prevalence along the age group of 30–69 years. The pattern showed cancer incidence at a proximity to state borders and forest regions (Noolpuzha) which are high population density regions, instantiated relation of geographic variables, and cancer incidences. The implementation of data frame ensured structured data collection. Conclusions: This study concluded the spatial association of cancer incidence demonstrating the high-risk regions with male predominance and role spatial risk analysis in cancer database management.

Internet network design specialists are looking for technologies and strategies to deliver network service under increased demand conditions. The choice of strategies is based on applying optimization and decision-making methods to select the most appropriate cable network design considering criteria established by the problem definition. However, this definition is itself a decision problem that has not received analysis in the literature. In particular, one of the most important questions is the necessity to define an expansion strategy. The first alternative (expansion) is to design a network to serve consumers with Internet demand equal to or greater than the predefined one to expand the network annually to serve consumers that reach the predefined Internet speed. The second alternative (oversizing) is to design a network to serve consumers with future Internet demand (after 5 years) at or above that the predefined one. Considering this, the objective of this research is to define the most advantageous strategy of expansion planning to attend a 5 years forecasted Internet demand, considering: (1) the possibility of utilizing a Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network technology; (2) the application of the minimal Steiner tree and Dijkstra algorithms in planning procedures; (3) the influence of economic and technological factors on the demand forecast; (4) the aggressive, moderate, and conservative scenarios in decision-making. The results show that the over-dimensioning strategy reduces network investment by between 30 and 41%, but that this reduction does not always lead to a market investment ratio higher than that observed in the expansion strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to produce a geoecological model of susceptibility to the occurrence of fires in the Lapa Grande State Park (PELG), MG, Brazil. Applying geotechnologies, the analytical-integrative method was used to identify, model and map areas with susceptibility to the occurrence of forest fires. The validation of the result was also performed by overlapping the map of heat sources. The result showed that, in the model produced, more than 50% of the PELG area is under high fire susceptibility. The overlap of the map resulting from the modeling with the map of heat sources resulted in 84% coincidence, confirming the applicability of the method. It is concluded that the model produced by directing better actions for fire prevention in the PELG and in the buffer zone, as well as for application to other conservation units in the Cerrado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification can be understood as a process of degradation of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid lands, resulting from climatic variations and human activities. Most damaging aspects fall mainly on the reduction of fertility and the production capacity of the land, as it is often an irreversible situation. For this, one of the most useful and applied ways for studies to verify the susceptibility to desertification is through the calculation of the Aridity Index (AI). Thus, the present work uses this methodology to verify the spatial distribution of the aridity index for the State of Pernambuco, from 1993 to 2016 with the help of a geographic information system. It was observed that in the period from 2013 to 2016 the State of Pernambuco suffered the greatest reductions in the values of the aridity index, as well as in their respective rainfall. Highlight for the municipality of Itacaruba, which presented an aridity index of 6.1, with the lowest value recorded when compared to 185 municipalities and the highest susceptibility to desertification with a grade of 11.25. The municipality of Jatobá, presented the lowest rainfall in the historical series of 23 years analyzed, with an annual average of 263.76mm. These results should support further studies and allow the preparation and implementation of adequate environmental planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the frequency of natural disasters in recent years and its consequent social, economic and environmental impacts make it possible to prioritize areas of risk as an essential measure in order to maximize harm reduction. This case study, developed in the city of Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, aims to identify and evaluate areas susceptible to mass movements, through the development of a model based on logistic regression, associated to Geographic Information System (GIS). The construction of the model was based on the use of only four independent variables (slope, geological aspects, pedological aspects and land use and coverage) and a binary variable, which refers to the occurrence of mass movements. In total, 123,308 pixels were used as samples for the logistic regression modeling in SPSS software. As a result, we have the spatialization of a mass movement probability map with 87.3% of the correctly sorted pixels. A validation with the landslide susceptibility map built by the Brazilian Geological Survey was also performed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, indicating a prediction accuracy of 82.5%. This research showed the efficiency of the integrated use of GIS and logistic regression, with emphasis on the relative simplicity of the model, speed of application and good ability to identify areas susceptible to landslides. The proposed model allowed the determination of the probability of occurrence of landslides with good predictive capacity, surpassing the usual model used by the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]