Invited Guest Talk, 3/1: Carlos Souza Jr, "Preventing Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon with Geospatial Intelligence and Collaborative Impact Approach"

About the Seminar 
Dr.  Carlos Souza Jr. will demonstrate how they use geospatial intelligence at Imazon to forecast short-term deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and design a plan to combat it using a collaborative impact strategy. Dr. Souza Jr. will provide a quick overview of the threats the Amazon rainforest faces due to deforestation, forest degradation, and climate change. Then, he will present their forecasting deforestation model and their AI model to monitor the expansion of roads, which he refers to as the "arteries of destruction’'. Their approach at Imazon to save Amazon combines science-driven open-source data, a collaborative impact approach, and communication outreach, which will be illustrated with concrete examples in his presentation.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Souza Jr. holds a bachelor's degree in geology from Pará State Federal University, Brazil, an M.Sc. in soil science from Penn State University, US, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California Santa Barbara, US. He is currently an associate researcher at Imazon, focusing on remote sensing for mapping and monitoring forests, forest degradation, land use and land cover change, surface water monitoring, and spatial modeling. Dr. Souza Jr. has published over 100 journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. He is also the co-founder of Terras App, an IT company that provides solutions for sustainable landscapes, and the MapBiomas. Dr. Souza Jr. has been honored with the Skoll Award and is a Mulago Foundation Fellow.

Zoom Meeting Info:
https://umd.zoom.us/j/8285211630

Meeting ID: 828 521 1630