2nd edition of the MapBiomas Award highlights land use data from research in different areas

2ND EDITION OF THE MAPBIOMAS AWARD HIGHLIGHTS LAND USE DATA IN RESEARCH FROM DIFFERENT AREAS

A thesis on predictive modeling of yellow fever and a paper that analyzed the Policy of Priority Municipalities in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon won first places in the General and Young categories, respectively.

Thursday, June 18th, 2020

Developing a model to prevent yellow fever; understanding whether deforestation is being combated in the Amazon or just displaced; measuring the effect of the loss of native vegetation on species in the Atlantic Forest; calculating the area available for solar power plants in Goiás; discovering the impact of changes in land use on stream fish communities in southern Brazil. The diversity of themes of the five winning studies in the 2nd edition of the MapBiomas Prize, a partnership between MapBiomas and Instituto Escolhas, sums up the wide variety of the 98 entries.

In addition to the increase in the number of entries - more than triple that of the first edition - the large participation of young scientists caught the attention of the organizers. "Of the entries received, 72% were from young people under the age of 30," said MapBiomas' scientific coordinator, Julia Shimbo, at the awards ceremony on Tuesday (16/06). Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was held online, with streaming on MapBiomas Youtube channel. Shimbo also highlighted the fact that 78% of the entries came from academia (research institutions, universities and technical institutes).

Professor Mercedes Bustamante, from the University of Brasilia (UnB), welcomed the many papers submitted by young scientists. In a forceful speech, she said that society needs "scientists with strong voices". "It is very important that we have a generation of scientists who are able to give strength to information through their voices, through their work, who can act as what we call voices of authority; be impartial, be able to explain where the uncertainties are in the evidence and what the possible consequences of future alternatives are," she said

For the UnB professor, the MapBiomas Award reflects two fundamental values present in the MapBiomas project, which was born in 2015: "openness and transparency in the data". "Because they allow this data to be re-analyzed, synthesized into other studies, which is exactly what the Award shows," said Bustamante. In addition to the importance of an award like this in encouraging science, Bustamante spoke about the recognition for researchers' careers.

This is how Livia dos Santos Abdalla (FIOCRUZ/IME) received first place in the General Category: "The Mapbiomas award is one of the greatest recognitions of my academic career. It is an injection of encouragement for me to continue dedicating and integrating personal and professional efforts to produce research applied to the social and environmental problems that are urgent in our country." His research used thousands of attributes, including land use data from MapBiomas, in a model to predict the emergence of sylvatic yellow fever in Brazil.

The technical coordinator of MapBiomas, Marcos Rosa, praised the winning work, highlighting the moment we are living in. "Epidemics are predicted and fought with science and knowledge. We are in the midst of a crisis and it is through science that we will achieve the best results in combating the pandemic we are now experiencing," he said.

VISIBILITY AND CREDIBILITY OF RESEARCH.

The winner of the Youth Category, João Pedro Graça Melo Vieira (PUC-Rio), said that the MapBiomas Award contributes "not only by encouraging research directly, but by giving it visibility and credibility". "This is something that is sorely lacking in Brazil today in general, but which is even more complicated for young people, because there aren't so many spaces and a consolidated incentive structure. Looking around at my fellow students, I can see that there is plenty of capacity and ideas to produce and take part in awards like this, if they existed in their areas of interest," he said. In his research, he analyzed whether policies to combat deforestation in the Amazon have in fact reduced the loss of native vegetation or merely shifted this loss to another biome, the Cerrado.

Promoting the MapBiomas platform, with its free and public data, is also an objective of the award. "The award is important for promoting the platform's data. The dissemination of my honorable mention reached many research groups that can benefit from this data. The platform should be widely disseminated because of the quality of the time series data and especially because this information is public," said Mateus Camana (UFRGS), who received an Honorable Mention in the General Category, with a paper on the impact of land use on stream fish communities in southern Brazil.

The volume of entries and the quality of the winners' presentations showed that the 2nd edition of the MapBiomas Award achieved its objectives. "We are a network that produces primary data to be used by others. That's why we came up with the idea of the MapBiomas Award. It's an opportunity to stimulate and recognize the work of those who, using this data and information on land cover and land use in Brazil and its evolution, generate science, knowledge and research for better management of Brazil's natural resources," said the general coordinator of MapBiomas, Tasso Azevedo.

THE WINNERS

General Category


1st Place: Livia dos Santos Abdalla (FIOCRUZ/IME) - Data-driven modeling for predicting the emergence of zoonoses: a case study of wild Yellow Fever in Brazil.

2nd Place: Thomas Püttker et al (UNIFESP) - Indirect effects of habitat loss via habitat fragmentation: a cross-taxa analysis of forest-dependent species

Honorable Mention: Mateus Camana et al (UFRGS) - Assessing the legacy of land use trajectories on stream fish communities in southern Brazil.


Young Category

1st Place: João Pedro Graça Melo Vieira (PUC-Rio) - Curbing or Displacing Deforestation? The Amazon Blacklist Policy
Vídeo sobre o trabalho: 

2nd Place: Angela Gabrielly Pires Silva (IFG) – Selection of suitable areas for photovoltaic power plant deployment based on Boolean-Fuzzy logic model.

2ND EDITION OF THE MAPBIOMAS AWARD IN NUMBERS

  • 98 works registered
  • 72% of registrations by young people under 30
  • 78% from academic institutions (universities, research organizations, technical institutes)
  • 16 states and the Federal District represented among the registrants (highest volume from Paraná and São Paulo)
  • 42% of the works with themes/areas of knowledge related to land use/remote sensing and conservation (other topics: territorial planning, infrastructure, water, biodiversity, fire, education, fishing, tourism, etc.)
  • R$ 25 thousand in prizes

Find out more about the MapBiomas Award: mapbiomas.org/premio

Sobre o MapBiomas: iniciativa multi-institucional, que envolve universidades, ONGs e empresas de tecnologia, focada em monitorar as transformações na cobertura e uso da terra no Brasil. Site: mapbiomas.org.

Contat: contato@mapbiomas.org