Welcome! I am a researcher on Geoinformatics and Environmental Modelling at the Image Processing Division of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. Here is my research vision and a recent lecture on modelling human-environment interactions.
I am INPE's general director for the period December 2005 to December 2011, after serving as INPE's director for Earth Observation from October 2001 to December 2005. During my tenure as director, INPE's budget grew from US$ 90 million in 2004 to US$ 250 million in 2010. We defined a long-term strategic plan, increased cooperation in satellite technology with China and USA, and signed major contracts with Brazilian industries. INPE created the Centre for Earth System Science and the Centre for Space Research in Amazonia. We got a new supercomputer for weather and climate prediction and set up a program in Space Weather.
I established a free and open access policy for INPE's data and products. More than 1,5 million satellite images were distributed by INPE between 2005 and 2011. Our team also achieved big advances in forest monitoring by satellites, which led to a major decrease in the deforestation in Amazonia. This effort was supported by total information transparency, which changed the way Brazil and the World looked at Amazonia.
I serve on the editorial board of the journals Earth Science Informatics, Journal of Spatial Information Science and Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. I am a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). I was a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of Global Land Project from 2006 to 2011. I received a Dr. Honoris Causa from the University of Muenster (Germany) and I am a fellow of the Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente (Netherlands). According to Google Scholar , I have an h-index of 27 and over 3800 paper citations, as of October 2011.
Our team at INPE develops free software, including: SPRING, a free object-oriented GIS, TerraLib, an open source GIS library, TerraME, a tool for spatial modelling in cell spaces, TerraHS, a Haskell GIS programming enviroment, and GeoDMA, a geographical data mining program.
Contact me: gilberto.camara ( at ) inpe.br.
