With more than 50 researchers – the majority of whom are Brazilian –, the Brazilian Team participates in the semifinals of the XPRIZE-Rainforest competition, in Singapore. The initiative mobilizes innovative technologies for the preservation of tropical forests. For the event, on the 27th and 28th of this month, the team has the support of the climate technology company brCarbon, which lent the remote sensor LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), integrated into a drone that maps forests in three dimensions. The use of the device makes it possible to measure the vegetation structure, such as tree height, vegetation density, structural diversity and carbon stocks. The Brazilian Team is among the 15 semi-finalist teams in the international competition that will award the first place with sums of up to US$ 10 million. The competition started in 2019, with 800 teams registered. In May, field tests will be carried out. Optimism For team coordinator Vinicius Castro Souza, the expectation regarding participation in the semifinals is one of the best. “We are very optimistic. I think we are well ahead, and we have a good chance of being in the first places in this award. In the final, we must guarantee it now”, said Souza, who is also a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences. from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (Esalq/USP). To Agência Brasil, Vinícius highlighted the team’s skills: “We have a very complete team in various solutions, from the DNA part to the part of drones, part of animal sounds. We have several solutions to find out what species are in the area.” Fourteen researchers from the Brazilian Team are traveling next Monday (22nd) to Singapore. A good part of the team will be working remotely, analyzing the collected data. Of the 15 teams competing in the semifinals, ten will be selected for the finals in 2024. According to Souza, the venue for the finals will be revealed later this year and there is a prospect that the Amazon or the Congo will be chosen: “if it is the Amazon, for us, it will be great.” Drone is used to collect tree branches, for example – Divulgação Robôs “We will have a period of testing our equipment and methodologies to, later, carry out the test-test in fact, which are the collections in 24 hours in the forest. It is a forest of up to 100 hectares in which we are going to work”, informed the director of brCarbon, Danilo Almeida, who is co-coordinator of remote sensing of the team. The work will use terrestrial robots that make collections of soil and litter (layer of dry leaves, branches, remains of fruits, flowers and dead animals on the surface of the soil). “These terrestrial robots bring these samples to us, for us to do the DNA tests”. From this examination of the DNA of the soil and of the dead material above the surface of the soil, the researchers are able to make projections of the existing biodiversity in the forest. The team of researchers also has aerial robots that collect the branch of a tree, for example, and take drones with camera-type sensors to the researchers, in addition to the LiDAR sensor, which is a 3D scanner, which helps to estimating vegetation structure, structural diversity. “These photographs that the drone will take with the camera, in addition to the LiDAR sensor, will be used for species recognition algorithms, which are artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms”, explained Almeida. The group will have a forest area to collect in 24 hours, but will have to respect the basic rule of the competition: “No human being can enter this area”. Therefore, there is a need for development and support of robots and technology. Fronts The Brazilian Team is made up of sub-groups: remote sensing, robotics, sound sensors, genetic sequencing, insight and the Pl@ntNet application (which allows estimating the species of a plant based on a photo). The insights, which make it possible to say to what extent the mapped diversity adds value to the forest, will be transformed into databases: “It is not simply estimating biodiversity, but how to value the forest. What are the insights or ideas that we are going to bring about the value of this forest based on the data that we are going to obtain from these sensors”, says Almeida. The way in which the group will approach the biodiversity of the place is also important in the classification. XPRIZE-Rainforest will win the team capable of researching the greatest biodiversity contained in up to 100 hectares of tropical forest in 24 hours and in the following 48 hours prepare the final document, identifying the ecosystem services of the identified species. If it wins the competition, the Brazilian Team intends, with the value of the prize, to set up a fund dedicated to research and training to conserve and restore the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest. Professionals with multidisciplinary technical-scientific knowledge participate in the team, including botanists, zoologists, ecologists, lawyers, economists and engineers from Brazil and also from France, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, United States, Holland and Belgium.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©