VISIBLE, INFRARED AND SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR DATA FOR DETECTING 
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES: THE PANAMAZONIA PROJECT 
Paulo Roberto Martini 
Senior Remote Sensing Specialist 
National Institute of Space Research - INPE 
Astronautas Ave #1758 
12227-010 Sao Jose dos Campos SP Brazil 
e-mail: martini@ltid.inpe.br 
Commission VII, Working Group 5 
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, Developing Countries, Environment, LANDSAT 
ABSTRACT 
In order to monitor environmental changes within the boundaries of South America tropical forest a cooperative projet 
among the Amazonian countries was started some months before the 92 UN Conference on Environment and 
Development. À selected team of Remote Sensing Specialists was trained both in image analysis, GIS integration and 
management procedures. Images were derived from LANDSAT Thematic Mapper and SAR-ERS 1 instruments. More 
than 300 images were distributed to Panamazonian countries and a temporal approach ranging between 84-88 and 88- 
90 was adopted in order to have some preliminary results of the annual rates of deforestation in South America. The 
first results arose from Bolivia and French Guyana. Small spots of cleareuts appear in the vicinities of Kourou and 
Cayen in French Guyana. Deforestation figure of Bolivia is 3 times lower then the numbers issued elsewhere in the 
literature. Results from Ecuador, Peru, Suriname and Guyana are still to come because there is a lack of dedicated 
hardware to undertake the project. Besides deforestation some new features have been detected. These new features are 
mostly found within the Brazilian Amazon and they are indicating significant expantion in ore/oil exploitation and gold 
mining 
I. THE PROJECT Project had assured working teams in all Pancountries. 
These teams were trained and acquainted with remote 
PANAMAZONIA Project is a joint effort of South sensing and GIS technology. 
America countries facing the monitoring of the 
Amazonia Forest through the use of remotely sensed data 
and wall-to-wall procedure in a computerized data set. 3. THE FRAMES 
Forest clear-cutting in Brazil have been evaluated since 
1989 by means of GIS and LANDSAT frames. The LANDSAT frames (more than 300) were acquired 
methodology used to monitor deforestation and to through the Brazil/Ecuador receiving stations. Additional 
measure the rates of deforestation from year-to-year in frames (80) were acquired from EOSAT. The frames are 
Brazil is now being transfered through Panamazonia all Thematica Mapper color composite of bands 3BAGSR 
Project to others South American countries as: French in 250.000 scale and mostly are from the dry season. 
Guyana, Suriname. Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Some exclusive hard rain areas have been analysed 
Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. through SAR-ERS-1. These are include: Parakaima 
Mountains between Brazil and Venezuela; Amapa 
Region along the low waters of the Amazon River and 
2. THE PROCEDURES the coastal zone between the Amazon and 
Paramaribo. These images are now being analysed by the 
The project was designed back in May 1991 and three technical teams. 
main topics were then stablished: i)Training of a 
technical team to develop the Project within each 
Panamazonia country; ii)Selection, acquisition and — 4. PRELIMINARY RESULTS 
generation of color infrared LANDSAT prints at 250.000 
scale of two periods (1984-1988) and (1988-1991); iii) First results were achieved by knowing more precisely 
Transference of GIS technology and implementation of a the boundaries of tropical forest in South America. 
Computerized data base in those countries where these Taking into account the bright signature of the forest in 
Procedures were not available. After 14 months the band 4 the ecosystem comprised by the Tropical Rain 
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996