University of Muenster, 28 April 2011
“Building public good
instituions in emerging
nations”
Gilberto Câmara
Director, National Institute for Space Research
Brazil
http://www.dpi.inpe.br/gilberto
Human development index?
Institutions are the key
Justice
Information
Public health
Knowledge
Divided we stand
Dom Helder Câmara: When I give food to
the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask
why are they poor, they call me a
communist."
HAL to human: This mission is too
important for me to allow you to
jeopardize it.
Public goods
Non-rival
An individual's consumption of a good leads to no
subtractions from any other individual's consumption
of that good
Non-excludable
it is not acceptable to exclude any individuals from
consuming the good
Geospatial data are public goods
photo: NASA
"We went to explore the Moon, and in fact
discovered the Earth." Eugene Cernan
Energy
Agriculture
Ecosystems
Space technology adds value to Brazil´s natural
knowledge economy
Megacities
Climate change
Weather and natural
disasters
The fundamental question of our time
How is the Earth’s
environment changing,
and what are the
consequences for human
civilization?
fonte: IGBP
Human actions and global change
photo: C. Nobre
Global Change
Where are changes taking place?
How much change is happening?
Who is being impacted by the change?
What is causing change?
photo: A. Reenberg
images: USGS
Slides from LANDSAT
Geoinformatics and Change: A Research Programme
How do we decide
on
the
use
of
natural
resources?
1973
1987
2000
Aral Sea
Can we describe and predict changes resulting from human
decisions?
What computational tools are needed to model humanenvironment decision making?
We need spatially explicit models to
understand human-environment interactions
Nature: Physical equations
Describe processes
Society: Decisions on how to
Use Earth´s resources
Scientists and Engineers
Photo 51(Franklin, 1952)
Scientists build in order to study
Engineers study in order to build
Inspirations on GIscience and technology
Kuhn
Egenhofer
Monteiro
Frank
Cartaxo
Inspiration for public service: Marina Silva
"I trust INPE’s
data, whether
good or bad for
my government"
Real-time Deforestation Monitoring
15-day warnings of newly deforested large areas
Transparency builds governance
“By 2020, Brazil will reduce deforestation
by 80% relative to 2005.” (pres. Lula in
Copenhagen COP-15)
CBERS as a global satellite
CBERS ground stations will cover most of the Earth’s
land mass between 300N and 300S
“If Brazil can do it, US can do it too”
A vision for the future
A constellation of satellites and sensors will provide free
earth observation data for all countries on Earth
Some lessons from best practices
space programs
EO data:onbenefits
to everyone
Develop applications before satellites
Focus on Earth observation
Science and engineering belong together