en Years Monitoring and Mapping Fires in Brasil Current Productsand Information Networks

E. E de Miranda. I, L. Johrr'

stractThe burned areas in Brazil have been the cause of much concern and controversy. The

ings affect many ecological and agricultural systems, creating negative environrnentalacts on both local and regional level. Linking remote sensing, digital cartography andtronic communication, the Environrnental Monitoring Center - NMA - and the Nationalitute for Space Research - INPE - research teams have been conducting a constant and

ective monitoring of bumed areas in the whole Brazilian territory, since 1989. The AgênciaEstado(AE) News Wire Service and the NGO Ecoforce started a public campaign to stop theAImizonburnings, using this data. Ali the mapping system is available on Internet, since 1991.

e may consult weekly, monthly or annual maps, of either whole Brazil or its regions andes. It's the biggest data bank on burnings available on Internet (in portuguese and english) andmost visited site on active fires (http://www.nrna.embrapa.br/projects/qmd us/index.html),

ith an average of 150,000 hits per year, due to its reliabillity and avalability . The system. es are frequently updated and may be helpful to understand the lirnitations of remote

sing data on fire detection and mapping. The detection and mapping homogenity allowedresearchers to study the space and time patterns of the burnings.The NMA team also does an hydrologic monitoring, based on satellite transferred

data,which gives information on water availability on 25 soil types at 11 states of Brazil, asan extra indicator of fire risk and generates around 12,000 pages a week on Internet(bttp://www.agrocast.com.br). The follow up of over 450 farmers for the last 10 years, on theamazonregion, has also helped to understand the causes of interannual burnings flutuactions,their relation with climate (http://www.nma.embrapa.br/projects/machadinho ) and therelationship between deforestation and burnings. Finally, the allocation and use of a mobileantennafor NOAAlAVHRR data reception, by NMA tearn was decisive on supporting the in

itu tire combat, at Roraima state, in early 1998.

Introduction

The burned areas in Brazil have been the cause of much concern and controversy. Thebumings affect many ecological and agricultural systems, creating negative environmentalimpacts on both local and regional level. Unlike the temperate forests, the Brazilian tropicalforests (Amazon and Atlantic forests) do not burn by accident, nor because of lighnings, noteven if someone sets fire on them. Almost all the different kinds of forests that occurr in theAmazon Basin and in the Atlantic Costal areas are toa humid to burn. Many of them - likeigapó forests or palmtree forests - are litterally under the water, six to eight months a year.The "highlands" vegetation - called terra firme forests - are the driest ones. But, even there,

I Embrapa Monitoramento por Satélite - Environmental Monitoring Center Research Director. EnvironmentalMonitoring Center - NMA Caixa Postal: 491, CEP: 13001-970, Campinas, SP - BRAZIL1 Professional journalist, specialized on environmental issues, works for Agência Estado Ltda, the biggest NewsWire Service in Brazil, and have been writting about the Brazilian burnings since 1987 (lj@agest.ecof.org.br)

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accidental fires only occur if the vegetation is disturbed: full of loggers and hunters trails,where dry branches and leaves are exposed to the sun and after a very dry season. On the last10 years of burnings monitoring huge wildfires on uncut forested areas only happened twice:at a very disturbed area near Santarem, state of Pará, and at Roraima State; both during severedry seasons, due to El Nifio episodes. One way to study this phenomenon is to consult weekly(Figures 1 and 2), monthly (Figures 3 and 4) and annual burning maps (Figures 5 and 6).

Safe/Me Monítoring

State of São PauloOctober 15-21, 1999

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Figures 2: Exarnplesof weekly burningmaps of Brazil

Setetlite Monítoring

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Satellite Monítoring

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Figures 3: Examplesof monthly burningmaps of Brazil

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Satellite Monítoring

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Figures 5: Examplesof annual burningmaps of Brazil

Safe/fite Monitoring

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At the Brazilian Amazon forests the trees have to be cut down, then dryedduringmonths, to catch fire. That's why Brazilians distinguish bumings (queimadas) from great firesar wild fires (incêndios). Bumings are made purposely. Not because Brazilians areincendiaries, but because the fire is the cheapest way to reduce the trees leftovers, to controlweeds and pests, to renew pastures and to harvest some crops (specially sugar cane). Wildfires can be the result of uncontrolled bumings, that reach the native vegetation, besides aliother weel known fire causes: cigarettes on roadside grasslands, glass under sunlight,lightnings, criminal fires ...

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Some 20% of the Amazon region, however, is covered by grasslands or savannahswith small dispersed trees, called cerrados. Like the African savannahs, this vegetation doesburn. But, still there, natural fires are minory. The cerrados usually are the first patches ofwildland occupied by farmers and settlers, because it demands less efforts to be cultivated.The bumings, in fact, have been occurring ali over Brazil for centuries.

By 1987, the NOAAlAVHRR images were first successfully tested to identify thebumings. The team at INPE, the National Institute for Space Research, in São Paulo state,Brazil, used the temperature sensor of the north american meteorologycal satellite to localizeburned and buming areas. Their purpose was to produce a list of geographycal coordinates,spotting the major fires for the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA), supposed tofiscalize those burnings in the field. Tn 1988, the scientists decided to send the informationalso to the press and the Agência Estado (AE) news wire service startcd a public campaign tostop the Amazon burnings, using this data.

The bumings monitoring became a routine. Since 1988, burnings are listed andcounted every day, during ali dry season (from June to October or November), not only onthe Amazon Basin, but ali over Brazil and, sometimes also on neighbor countries. After themain media campaign against the Amazon burnings, in 1989 and 1990, Brazilian scientistsstarted to produce better maps. An agreement was made among INPE, AE, the EnvironmentalMonitoring Center (NMA) and a NGO called Ecoforce ', in order to produce maps that couldbe easily understood by general public. Developing activities, through agreements andscientific partnerships, the NMA adjusted and spreaded out knowledge in the geoprocessingapplications area (remote sensing and digital cartography) for agriculture and theenvironment. Acting over ali National territory, it assists federal, state, and municipal entitiesand the private initiative.

Current products and information networks

Since 1991, weekly burnings maps were published on several newspapers with aninterpretation, as a public service of inforrnation. A mapping system is also available onInternet, since then . One may consult weekly, monthly and annual burning maps, of eitherwhole Brazil or its regions and states. Its the country biggest data bank on burnings avai1ableon Internet, as well as the most accessed site.

This homepage (http://www.nma.embrapa.br/projects/gmduslindex.html) getsaround 150.000 hits per year, due to its reliability and availability.

Ali the system routines are frequently updated. The detection and mappinghomogenity allowed NMA researchers to study the space and time patterns of the burnings.

The NMA team also does an hydrologic monitoring, based on satellite transferreddata, which gives information on water availabi1ity on 25 soil types at 11 states of Brazil, asan extra indicator of fire risk and generates weekly around 12,000 pages on Internet(http://www.agrocast.com.br).

The follow up of over 450 farmers for the last 10 years, on amazon region, has alsohelped to understand the causes of interannual burnings flutuactions, not re1ated to c\imate(http://www.nma.embrapa.br/projects/machadinho) and the relationship betweendeforestation and burnings. Finally, the allocation and use of a mobile antenna forNOAAlAVHRR data reception, by NMA team was decisive on supporting the in situwildfires combat, at Roraima state, in early 1998.

3 Ecoforce - Research & Development (hUp://www.ecof.org.br)

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Deforestation X Burnings: A MisunderstandingSince the intemational "campaign" to preserve the Brazilian Amazon "caught fire", in

1988-89, almost ali the intemational press has mixed up two different kinds of environmentalagression: the deforestation and the bumings. This happened, first, because both problemsstarted to be monitored throught satellite data alrnost at the same time. Second, because,during sometime, scientists thought they could estimate the deforested area from the bumeddata. Third, because the burning's smoke were interesting to hide some developed countriespollution records. And, fourth, because most of the foreign joumalists (and many BrazilianSouthern journalists) didn't know the Amazon forests and its ecologycal peculiarities.

Now, the scientists have reviewed their methods. Some Brazilian journalists andauthorities learned to point the difference. Even intemational organizations - like the WorldBank and the World Resources Institute - seem to recognize the mistake. But the averageintemational media maintain the misunderstanding.

The deforestation is the cutting of the forest for timber, settlements, agriculture, cattleraising or minning. It causes local c1imate changes and biodiversity reduction, but does notcontribute to the greenhouse effect. The burnings are the main farrners tool to reduce the treesleftovers, to control weeds and pests, to renew pastures and to harvest some crops. It causeslocal and regional pollution; reduces visibility on highways and airports; reduces the soilbiological fertility and increases the risk of erosion. It also contributes to the greenhousehouse effect, but only when the tree trunks are burned, during the first years afterdeforestation.

The measurements of the two environmental problems are distinct. Almost everyburned area, in Brazilian Amazon, was first deforested. Most part of the burned areas will behit by the fire every year, again and again. But there is a lot of deforested areas that do notbum. This means one cannot measure the deforestation by the bumings, because there wouldbe areas not considered at ali, while other areas would be counted several times.

Monitoring Forest Fires in Roraima State in 1998Due to an exceptional dry period, related to the El Nino phenomenon, the Roraima

State, located on the farthest northern part of Brazil, on the Northern Hemisphere, wasseverely hit by a series of burnings and wild fires. The fires took place on its savannahs,grassland and decidous forests in early 1998. Until late March the fire combat actions werebased on NOAA images, sent from United States and retransmitted by TNPE for the 7thForest Army Command, at Roraima, once the Brazilian fixed antennas for NOAA datareception did not reach the North Hemisphere. The time gap from the image acquisitionmoment and its reception, by the militar operation command, at the fires fronts, was over aday. Therefore, its utilization was very limited, jeopard.ized by the delay.

By demand of the Terrestrian Operations Command (COTER), the NMA has movedfor Roraima its NOAA imagery reception antenna. That allowed the imagery acquisitionseveral times a day. The time gap from the data reception and the delivery of images, maps andanalysis for the operation command tumed to be less than one hour. Ali the fire combat logisticwas optimized, with meaningfull practical results. Even after the first rainfalls, this monitoringallowed the detecction of isolated fire spots and their efective extinction. Ali obtained data weremade available on Intemet (http://www.nma.embrapa.br/projetos/queimadas).

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Final commentsIn Brazil, the fire detection and mapping system is available, on a regular basis, for

ten years. This information, through the Internet, is reaching a large audience, that includesNGOs, media, research institutions, governamental organismes and policy makers.

In terms of active fire detection, despite the physical Iimitations of theNOAA/ AVHRR data, ten years of monitoring allowed researchers to validate patterns for thespatial and temporal dynamics of the fires, in different regions in Brazil. Several reasearchiniciatives, fire management and environmental policies could be implemented. Thereliability and availability of the corrent products on fire detection and mapping increased thenational awareness of the media and public opinion. Latcly, a special cífort has been done -from research 10 governamental and non governamental levels - in lhe search for agriculturaltechnologies that can replace the fire on its severa I uses at the different Brazilian farmingsysterns (http://www.nma.embrapa.br/projetos/gmd/tabgmd.html).

The forest fires in Roraima showed how relevant it was to have a mobile receptionantenna for NOAA imagery. Communication networks are not enough to deliver images,maps and analysis from a remote center of acquision of data, specially when there is anemergency on a remote and isolated area, as are almost ali national parks andenvironmentally important sites in Brazil. On those regions, with appropriate support andtrainned technicians, it is possible to adquire and process the images several times a day. As ithappened at Roraima, the time gap from the data reception and the delivery of images, mapsand analysis for the operation command responsible for the fire combat can be less than onehour. All lhe fire combat logistic can be optimized, with meaningfull practical results. Evenafter the first rainfalls, this monitoring allowed the detecction of isolated fire spots and theirefective extinction.

With the regular monitoring and mapping, at the Amazon region, it was easier tocompare the active fire maps and the deforestation maps, produced with Landsat images, alsoin a regular basis. For many years, the National Institute for Space Research, INPE, has beenpromoting lhe interpretation of images from the Landsat satellite to monitor the evolution ofthe extent and rate of gross deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. This effort has generatedresults for the 1974 to 97 period (http://www.inpe.br/lnformacoes Eventos/amz/amz.html).This comparison showed that most part of the burning occurred either on cerrado areas, oron occupied areas in the Amazon Southern and Eastern border, specially along the highways,where there are settlers and farmers. About 75% of the deforested areas are located within50km of the highways and roads. Also, 87% of the newly deforested areas (cut down on the90s) are within 25km of the old deforested areas (cut down until 1978). This means there areno new agricultural frontiers and there have been no big expansions, but, rather, a vegetativegrowing of the human presence in the region.

The public and policy rnakers wants a fire product that allows, not only active firesdetection and mapping, but also a reasonably accurate estimation of area burned. The NMA isstarting a research proposal for the futur use of the WFI camera, on board of the CBERS-l(China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite)(http://www.inpe.br/programas/cbers/english/index.html). The WFr has a ground swath of890 km which provides a synoptic view with spatiaJ resolution of 260m. The Earth surface iscompletely covered in about 5 days in two spectral bands: 0,6611 m (green) and 0,83 11m (nearinfra-red). This use of the WFI will provide, if a developement of a burned area algorithms isachieved, the way to get an area burned fire product on the same information network.

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There is also a high correlation between burnings and rainfall. Every time it rains outof season, burnings are delayed or reduced. One can almost tell the weather in different partsof Brazil, just looking at the burnings blanks on daily maps. That also means some burningsreductions self atributed by governamental institutions to its "fiscalization" are clearly linkedto the occurence of unexpected rainfalls. The rainfall explains, yet, orne decrea es on thetotal fire points detected by the monitoring system, during the last ten years. It is worth toremark that, even if the burnings number changes, the spatial pattem usually rernains thesame, showing how closely is the fire related with structural and permanent factors and howdistant it is from accidents.

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