Inspiring talks, discussion sessions, case studies, and plenty of interaction marked the first edition of the event, held in São Paulo with over 200 attendees
July 20, 2025
More than 200 people attended the first MapBiomas User Summit, an event aimed at strengthening the community of MapBiomas platform users and fostering the exchange of ideas and collaboration among them, as well as greater interaction with the network’s team.
The summit took place on July 7 and 8 at Insper in São Paulo, featuring inspiring talks and thematic sessions involving researchers, professors, and representatives from companies and government agencies. On the first day, the winners of the 7th edition of the MapBiomas Award were also announced.
At the opening, Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas, highlighted the importance of the people who use the platform’s data in their initiatives. “In practice, we thrive on what users do with the data, generating impact.” For this reason, the idea of organizing a gathering with and among them had been in the making for some time. “We have several opportunities to connect with users, such as at our launches, but until now we hadn’t had quality time dedicated to interacting with them. And that is the idea behind this first edition of the Summit,” he said.
Vinicius Picanço, a professor at Insper—the institution that sponsored the event—and a member of the opening panel, highlighted MapBiomas’ ability to “organize data in a structured and accessible way, enabling people to use it to make decisions, develop solutions, and build collaborative networks.”
The session also featured Ivan Patriota, Director of GEO Latin America Partnerships at Google, with whom MapBiomas has maintained a partnership since its beginning, as the platform and its data are processed on Google Earth Engine. “The partnership with MapBiomas helps us in our mission to organize the information that already exists on the planet and make it accessible and useful to people,” said Patriota.
Inspiring talks and case studies
The two-day User Summit program was divided into talks designed to inspire users, case study presentations, and thematic sessions.
On the first day, various initiatives from the public, financial, civil society, and media sectors that use MapBiomas data were presented, featuring case studies and projects from Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), Banco do Brasil, IPS (Social Progress Index) Brazil, and Ambiental Media.
There were also lectures on the future of remote sensing, its challenges, and opportunities. The session featured representatives from NASA (the U.S. space agency), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and the University of Maryland.
On the second day, lectures on artificial intelligence were held with experts from Google.
Drawing on insights from the lectures, as well as presentations of various case studies, the parallel thematic sessions addressed issues such as public policy, deforestation and reforestation, wildfires, agriculture and livestock, climate change, and water, in addition to technology-related topics such as cloud-scale computing, design thinking, and spatiotemporal analysis tools.
During the breaks, User Summit participants were also able to view some of the work displayed on posters and explained by their authors and researchers.
“This event was designed for users and to foster a user community. We saw these people not only bringing innovations to us but also talking to one another and sharing what they’re doing. It was very special to see that,” said Amanda Coutinho, Analyst at MapBiomas.
Watch part of the first day of the User Summit here, including the 7th MapBiomas Awards ceremony.
The program for the two days included inspiring presentations on major contemporary themes, such as the climate emergency and new remote sensing technologies, as well as parallel sessions on topics related to data applications and use.