Lactec, Brazil’s leading company in innovation and technological research, and EOMAP – a German company specialized aquatic remote sensing solutions - signed a partnership to carry out projects in Brazil to improve mapping and monitoring of aquatic environments, using geospatial intelligence technologies.
“Digital environmental monitoring is the way forward. We believe that the smart exploitation of big data which are collected from satellite imagery every single day is an impactful part of it. Lactec and EOMAP could proof this for the 2015 Mariana tailing dam disasters and, thanks to our partnership, will enroll this to many more applications and monitoring concepts within Brazil” jointly stated by both companies. Thanks to the joint expertise it was possible to get a full picture of the environmental impact caused by the 2015 Mariana tailing dam disaster in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on the Doce River basin and the adjacent coastal region. The experts applied satellite data analytics, modelling and in situ data and identified how the tailing mud spread through the river until it reached the ocean, compromising the water quality and the local biota. This work will continue now with the evaluation regarding the consequences of the flooding registered on the region at the start of this year. With the flooding, the tailings that were deposited at the riverbed along with the sediments in the Doce River and tributaries, possibly aggravated the environmental conditions of those ecosystems, water quality wise.
Environmental researcher of Lactec, Gheysa do Rocio Morais Pires, explained that the remote sensing technology – associated with algorithms applied in EOMAP’s specific software - enables the collection of dense spatial data of the aquatic environment, such as temperature, turbidity, suspended solids, chlorophyll concentration. Among others, these are important parameters to determine water quality and were essential for the Mariana dam disaster and other environmental impact studies.
According to Henrique Reisdorfer Leite, representative of EOMAP in Brazil and works closely with the Lactec team, the use of geospatial intelligence for environmental monitoring represent several advantages, such as: spatial coverage, which is limited by field monitoring campaigns, caused by access difficulties and costs; or the possibility to evaluate the environmental conditions through time-series available on spatial agencies’ databases.
“Remote Sensing was essential in our work at the Doce River basin, because the satellite images allowed us to ‘go back in time’ and see what were the rivers’ conditions before and after the tailing dam disaster”, added Gheysa, noting that the digital monitoring data was validated by the analysis of samples collected in the field.
The same geospatial intelligence technologies and methodologies can meet the demands of companies in the electricity and sanitation sector, for example, the environmental monitoring of water reservoirs.
“The beauty of the new capabilities which we can jointly offer is, that water quality parameters can be measured remotely, using the big data from satellites. This enables us to provide a spatial and frequent mapping for all Brazilian waters. This brings a completely new dimension to the sampling and monitoring of how it is typically done and we believe that we can positively impact inland water monitoring concepts and provide regional and national authorities as well as reservoir stakeholders with an excellent information source to base their decisions and reporting on.” - continued Henrique.
To name just another example, Lactec and EOMAP also combined their expertise in a research and development (R&D) project, carried out for China Three Gorges - CTG Brasil, in which it was developed an automated method for monitoring the occurrence of aquatic macrophytes, integrating remote sensing technologies and hydrodynamic modeling.
“We have worked with Lactec since years and have appreciated their expertise and passion to introduce innovations in monitoring and managing reservoirs and in-land waters. Thus, it feels very naturally that we combine our strengths to offer joint solutions for providing satellite-derived solutions to map and monitor aquatic environments in Brazil”, stated EOMAP’s COO Knut Hartmann.
