Pursuing a PhD degree

Research Areas: Climate Change, Deforestation, Reforestation, Geospatial Analysis, GIS, Remote Sensing

Supervisor: Naomi Schwartz

Degrees:

Université d’Avignon, MA

Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, BA

Entry Date: September 2022

Expected Graduation Date: September 2026

Research Statement:

The 6th IPCC report shows that the world will likely reach 1.5°C of warming in the next two decades. Brazil has the highest rates of illegal deforestation in tropical forests. The newest deforestation rate data released on November 18, 2021, shows that the Amazon has lost 13235 km² of its forests from August 2020 to July 2021. That represents the worst rate since 2006. Deforestation is a major source of carbon emissions and causes biodiversity loss. Although we can monitor deforestation from space and use this information to inform enforcement actions, we are not necessarily optimizing enforcement action to prevent the most deforestation possible. My research proposal intends to calculate the Individualized Speed of Deforestation Occurrences (ISDO), the vegetation stage in Forest Restoration Projects and, in the end, calculate a country’s contribution to carbon sequestration by tackling deforestation and reforesting cleared areas.