About

WHAT IS MAPBIOMAS ALERT

MapBiomas Alert is a system of validation and refinement of deforestation alerts with high resolution images. The current version is dedicated exclusively to deforestation in all Brazilian biomes and will expand to other themes like degradation and regeneration of native vegetation over the next few years.

Brazil is covered by more than a dozen deforestation alert systems, such as DETER/INPE (Amazon and Cerrado), SAD/IMAZON, GLAD / Univ. Maryland (all biomes), and most recently SAD Caatinga/Geodatin/UEFS (Caatinga), SAD Mata Atlântica/SOS Mata Atlântica/ArcPlan (Mata Atlântica) and SAD Pantanal/SOS Pantanal/ArcPlan (Pantanal). Together, these systems generate tens of thousands of alerts from the analysis of satellite images of medium spatial resolution (20 to 60 m). These alerts are essential for law enforcement by the environmental and governmental agencies and for monitoring zero deforestation commitments in value chains, among other various applications.

Given the resolution used in these systems, the alerts need to go through a detailed validation process, often followed by field validation, before they can be useful to guide actions such as embargoes on illegal deforestation areas.

During consultations and workshops with governmental agencies that use alert systems (e.g. MMA, IBAMA, SFB, ICMBio, MPF, SEMAs, MP-Estadual, Polícia Militar Ambiental, TCU) and alert providers (e.g. INPE, IMAZON, University of Maryland, CENSIPAM, ISA, JICA + JAXA), we have identified the best contribution MapBiomas network could provide to support environmental monitoring and created the MapBiomas Alert platform. The initiative builds on MapBiomas' successful experience of working as a multi-institutional network specialized in processing images and data in a large scale, and making them available in a free, transparent, and accessible manner to the general public.

Currently, the alerts generated by the different providers are collected and used as a reference to locate deforestation in daily high-resolution satellite images (3 m). Each alert is verified and defined more precisely in space and time. For each validated alert, a report is generated with images from before and after the deforestation and crossing with areas of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), Protected Areas, Rural Settlements, and other geographical categories (e.g. biomes, states, municipalities, watersheds). We also provide in the same platform the more recent version of MapBiomas' annual land cover and land use maps in Brazil.

The proposed effect is to generate complete and ready-to-use documentation for each deforestation alert, just like the photo of the car plate in the traffic infraction fines. Thus, we seek to promote greater effectiveness in the law enforcement actions of the various user agencies.

MapBiomas Alert is not another deforestation alert system but an effort to enhance the usability and effectiveness of alerts already generated by other systems.

The data produced is public and free and can be accessed on the platform: https://plataforma.alerta.mapbiomas.org/

ABOUT MAPBIOMAS

MapBiomas is a multi-institutional initiative involving a collaborative network of universities, NGOs, and technology companies dedicated to mapping land cover and land use changes in Brazil. All data and maps are public, open and free.

To know more, access: www.mapbiomas.org

MapBiomas is an initiative involving a collaborative network of co-creators formed by NGOs, universities and technology companies organized by biomes and transversal themes. To know more access: http://mapbiomas.org

MapBiomas Alert is conducted by the following institutions:

Coordination by biome:

• Amazon - Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (IMAZON) in partnership with Federal University of Goias (LAPIG/UFG)  
• Caatinga - Feira de Santana State University (UEFS), in partnership with Geodatin and Plants Association of the Northeast (APNE)
• Cerrado - Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM)
• Atlantic Forest - SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation and ArcPlan
• Pampa - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and GeoKarten
• Pantanal - SOS Pantanal Institute and ArcPlan

Technology and Systems Partners:

• Google
• EcoStage
• Solved 
• LAPIG/ UFG
  

Technical Coordination: Marcos Rosa

Scientific Coordination: Julia Shimbo

General Coordination: Tasso Azevedo

Financing:

• Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)
• Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA)
• Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC)
• Good Energies Foundation
• Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation
• International Climate and Forest Initiative Norway (NICFI)
• Arapyaú Institute
• Climate and Society Institute (ICS)
• Humanize Institute
• Oak Foundation
• Quadracture Capital Foundation (QCF)
• Wellspring Philanthropic Fund (WPC)
• Walmart Foundation 

Institutional Partners:

• Arapyaú Institute
• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
• Democracy and Sustainability Institute (IDS)
• Avina Foundation
  

Technical Partners:

• Institute of Life Center (ICV)
• Socio-environmental Institute (ISA)
• Institute for Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (IMAFLORA)
• Democracy and Sustainability Institute (IDS)

MapBiomas data is public, open and free by simply referring the source following the format below.

"MapBiomas Alert Project - Validation and Refinement System for Deforestation Alerts with High-Resolution Images: [LINK] accessed on [date]"

"MapBiomas Project - is a multi-institutional initiative to map land cover and use change from automatic classification cloud processing applied to satellite imagery. The complete project description can be found at http://mapbiomas.org"

In the case of scientific publications using MapBiomas data, in addition to the source citation according to the guidelines above, it is recommended to contact the MapBiomas team to see if there is already a publication in progress on the proposed topic. If there is a specific biome/theme, it is also recommended to contact the team of the biome/theme.