International meeting of the Silvanus Project for a technological forest fire management platform

From the 24th to the 27th of February of 2025, Coppe/UFRJ will promote the last meeting of the Silvanus Project, which is focused on creating an Integrated, Technological and Information Platform for Fire Management. The project has experts from around 50 international institutions from the European Union, Australia and Indonesia; and Coppe is the only member from the American continent, through its Technology Transfer Center (NTT).

At this meeting, a demonstration of the innovative platform will be carried out, aiming for its final validation. It is being developed by researchers to be an environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient forest management tool, through the creation of new technologies. The main goal is to prevent ignition and intelligently combat the global spread of wildfires, promoting the efficient use of resources.

At Coppe, the studies are coordinated by professors Nelson Ebecken and Rogério Espíndola, from NTT, which is connected to the Civil Engineering Program. They are working on creating a digital knowledge base on fire management and evaluating machine learning methods recently proposed for analyzing forest fires. The professors are also working on mobilizing local partners interested in forest fires and translating advertising materials and proposed technologies into Portuguese.

The event will be held at Coppe’s auditorium, Bloco G, sala 122, Centro de Tecnologia da UFRJ, Avenida Horácio Macedo, 2030, na Cidade Universitária.

Schedule

Day 1 (February 24th)

• 10 AM – 11:15 AM: Registration & coffee
• 11:15 AM – 11:30 AM: Opening ceremony with PhD. Marysilvia Ferreira da Costa¹ from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
• 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM: Invited talk/Keynote speak: “Climate Future and Amazon Rainforest: Challenges and Solutions for Global Sustainability” by PhD. Carlos Afonso Nobre² from University of São Paulo (USP)

¹ Chemist, PhD. in Chemistry from University of São Paulo, Director of Technology and Innovation of COPPE/UFRJ.

² Carlos Afonso Nobre was one of the lead authors of the Latin America chapter of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is or was Head of the Scientific Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Senior Scientific Advisor to the UN Panel on Global Sustainability, member of the Scientific Council of the UN Secretary-General, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, as well as a senior fellow at the Brazilian division of the World Resources Institute.

Day 2 (February 25th)

• 9 AM – 10 AM: Invited talk: “Overview of Wildfires in Brazil” by PhD. Liana Oighenstein Anderson³ from National Center for Monitoring and Natural Disaster Alerts in Brazil (CEMADEN)
• 10 AM – 10:30 AM: Coffee break
• 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM: Invited talk: “ALARMES: A platform to support fire management and firefighting in Brazil” by PhD. Renata Libonati dos Santos⁴ from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM:  Invited talk: “Ecological restoration: are we asking the right questions?” by PhD. Dulce Gilson Mantuano⁵ from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

³ Biologist, PhD. in Geography and the Environment from Oxford University

⁴ Geophysicist, PhD. in Geophysics from University of Lisbon.

⁵ Biologist, PhD. in Botany from National School of Tropical Botany of the Botanical Garden Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro

Day 3 (February 26th)

• 9 AM – 10 AM: Invited talk: “35 years of Prevfogo: Challenges and Lessons Learned” by Lawrence Nobrega de Oliveira⁶ from Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).
• 10 AM – 10:30 AM: Coffee break.
• 10:30 AM – 11:10 AM: Invited talk: “Firefighting in Urban Forest: Challenges and Opportunities” by Lieutenant Colonel Marco Antonio Basques Sobrinho⁷ from the Civil Protection/Fire Department of the State of Rio de Janeiro (SEDEC/CBMERJ).
• 11:15 AM – 11:55 PM Invited talk: “Resilient city and a new model of environmental governance” by MSc. Mariana Oliveira da Costa⁸ from Secretariat of Environment and Climate of Paracambi.
• 12 PM – 12:40 PM: Invited talk: “Reforestation activities in combating wildfires” by MSc. Denivam Melo dos Santos Souza⁹ from Secretariat of Environment and Climate of Rio de Janeiro.
• 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM: SILVANUS workshop and showcase of the platform. SILVANUS’ members are going to present features of the SILVANUS platform.
• 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Coffee break.

⁶ Forest Engineer, Coordinator of Monitoring and Wildfire Combat of the National Center for Forest Fire Prevention and Combat (Prevfogo) from IBAMA.

⁷ Firefight and Rescue Officer, Military Firefighter Academy, Rio de Janeiro State (ABMDPII).

⁸ Geographer, MSc. in Geography from Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ).

⁹ Forest Engineer, MSc. in Environmental and Forest Sciences from Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ).

Day 4 (February 27th)

• 8:30 AM – 9 AM: Welcome coffee.
• 9 AM – 9:20 AM: Invited talk by MSc. Madalena Alves dos Santos¹⁰ from State Secretariat for Digital Transformation of Rio de Janeiro (SETD).
• 9:20 AM – 9:50 AM: Invited talk from PhD. Francisco Thiago Sacramento Aragão¹¹ and and MSc. Marcos Chaves Martins¹² from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
• 10 AM – 11 AM: SILVANUS evaluation and closing by the project coordinator, PhD. Ebroul Izquierdo¹³ from Venaka TReLeaf GbR (VTG).

¹⁰ Lawyer, MSc. in Law from State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Undersecretary of Special Projects in Innovation of SETD.

¹¹ Civil Engineer, PhD. in Civil Engineering from University of Nebraska, Associate Director of Technology and Innovation of COPPE/UFRJ.

¹² Production Engineer, MSc. in Production Engineering from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and manager of the COPPE/UFRJ Business Incubator.

¹³ Engineer, PhD. in Engineering from Humboldt University, and Professor of Multimedia and Computer Vision, Queen Mary University of London.