CANADA-BRAZIL COOPERATION
COOPERAÇÃO BRASIL-CANADÁ

The primary objective of the Remote Sensing component of the Northeastern Brazil Groundwater Project was to investigate whether these techniques could be useful to assess the groundwater favourability of areas underlain by crystalline basement rocks in semi-arid northeastern Brazil. Furthermore, it was hoped that remote sensing might be used as a first pass to determine groundwater potential and requirements (as a function of demographics and land use) in order to prioritize areas to be surveyed by the more costly airborne geophysical methods. A short illustrated document (pdf) shows how this may be achieved.  

The Remote Sensing component began with the transfer of technology to professor Venerando Eustáquio Amaro and his Ph.D. student Ana Catarina Fernandes Coriolano of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The training was carried out over a period of 12 weeks in Sherbrooke and Ottawa, and was provided by Drs. Q. Hugh J. Gwyn and Stéphane Péloquin of Infotierra Inc. and Drs. Andy Rencz and Jeff Harris of the Geological Survey of Canada. It focussed on stuctural interpretation based on remote sensing to assess groundwater potential in the Serrinha pilot area, Rio Grande do Norte.  The original proposal and a training report (both in pdf) by the contractor are available at this site and provide details of the technologies transfered.   A summary of the results of Dr. Coriolano's research, who was awarded a Ph.D. degree for this work in 2003, is also presented here (pdf in Portuguese).  It focusses on lineament extraction methods. 

In April 2002, the transfer of technology continued with a 2-week workshop at UFRN in Natal where the results of the work accomplished in Rio Grande do Norte were presented in great detail, as well as the results of work done in the other two pilot areas, Samambaia in Pernambuco, and Juá in Ceará.  The workshop included presentations on the results of the airborne geophysical surveys in the three pilot areas by Gregory Paleolog from Fugro's Mississauga office, and Jorge Dagoberto Hildenbrand from the company's Rio de Janeiro's office.  A report by Infotierra (pdf) on the April 2002 workshop, which includes recommendations for an integrated geoscience approach for groundwater exploration in NE-Brazil, is also presented at this site.  

Other studies were carried out, specifically on the interpretation of Landsat images in northern Ceará, an area that includes the Irauçuba/Juá pilot area.  One of these, carried out by Ricardo de Lima Brandão and Francisco Edson Mendonça Gomes of CPRM, involves assessing groundwater favourability of the study area through mathematical modeling of a multi-parameter dataset obtained by examining orbital images to extract certain parameters (e.g. structure, slope) and existing data (e.g. geology, soils, vegetation). Each variable is attributed a weight for the calculations and the result is a hydrological potential map of the area. The paper is available at this site (pdf in Portuguese).

A second study by Robert Bélanger of the Geological Survey of Canada, also examines Landsat images of northern Ceará.  Groundwater potential is assessed from the biomass index, and the biomass difference between the dry and rainy seasons.  The report also compares the results obtained from the Landsat images with the airborne geophysical data and well locations and yields in the area.  

At the time of writing (February 2004), a third technology transfer exercise is about to begin with a 6-week mission by Drs. Gwyn and Péloquin to Pernambuco and Ceará to introduce advanced geostatistical and other techniques, using as testing ground the Moxotó/Samambaia and the Irauçuba/Juá pilot areas.  

Update: May 2004

The latest training session was carried out over the entire month of March and the first week of April 2004 in two major northeastern Brazil cities, Recife and Fortaleza.  A dozen trainees, most of them CPRM technicians operating out of these centres, received intensive training on a variety of technologies (methods and software, and the so-called Infotierra Approach) that will permit them to make better use of geomatics in groundwater exploration in NE-Brazil.  The participants expressed a great deal of satisfaction with the way the program was planned and carried out. A short evaluation report by a lead trainee, Sergio Guerra of Recife, has been posted on this site (pdf, in Portuguese), as well as Infotierra's Final Report which includes general recommendations for using an Integrated Approach to Groundwater Prospecting in the region (pdf, in English). 

 last modified: 2004-09-26

Technology Transfer

Ana Catarina Coriolano and Professor Venerando Amaro of UFRN posing with Infotierra President Hugh Gwyn (far right) and remote sensing specialist, Dr. Stéphane Péloquin (far left), during training session in Sherbrooke, Quebec in March 2001.