Solution for diagnosis, monitoring and warning of environmental restoration using orbital images and remote sensing techniques

• Grant number: 24/19134-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Schultz
• Grantee: Bruno Schultz
• Company: Visiona Tecnologia Espacial S/A
• CNAE: Serviços de engenharia
• City: São José dos Campos
• Associated researchers: Fernanda Beatriz Jordan Rojas Dallaqua

Abstract

The Environmental Recovery Commitment Term (TCRA) is an official document that aims for environmental recovery and the reestablishment of native vegetation as a form of environmental compensation for the impacts caused by a project in the environmental licensing process. The term is signed by the responsible entrepreneurs, and its compliance is monitored by CETESB, responsible for monitoring and certifying that such recovery and compensation measures were complied with within the established period. The state of São Paulo, for example, has almost 4,000 TCRA polygons under the responsibility of CETESB to be inspected and monitored. However, the high volume of processes in progress and new processes requested, and complexity in terms of characteristics, extension, and territorial distribution of the areas to be monitored, are examples of factors that have generated greater pressure on the capacity and time for analysis, inspection, reporting and response from the technical team responsible for the topic, facts that highlight the need to develop and implement geographic intelligence tools based on geoprocessing solutions and methods, guaranteeing greater agility, with optimization of this process. Vegetation monitoring by remote sensing is carried out based on images collected by multispectral optical sensors onboard satellites and makes it possible, in a manner proven in the literature and operationally, to verify changes in forest cover over time, such as deforestation, degradation, and regeneration. Remote monitoring allows you to enhance and speed up the analysis flow of these processes besides optimizing the demand for technicians concerning travel for field inspections. To this end, multi-sensor images from government operators will compose a continuous time series of vegetation indices and spectral mixture models for each TCRA polygon monitored by the management system. From image processing, the time series will mathematically show the behavioral patterns of the TCRA polygons, comparing their current behavior with their behavior before deforestation. This comparative analysis over time allows the system to automatically define conditions that show the evolution of native vegetation in the suppressed area until it acquires conditions similar to its natural state. The TCRAs that did not have temporal evolution proven by the system through time series must be monitored as a priority in the field. Otherwise, the inspection will not be necessary once the conditions obtained via the system show that environmental recovery is in progress. The system will have a web application that will display dynamic visual panels (dashboards) with graphs and filters for viewing data generated in the analysis of TCRA polygons, in addition to an interactive map with TCRA polygons on satellite images and land use and land cover mapping. (AU)