Overview: Geospatial information are necessary for planning and decision making, resources management, and for the creation of public policies. Disseminating geoinformation is strategically relevant to strengthen Brazilian agriculture and to transfer the knowledge produced by Embrapa to the society. The deployment of a structure for the digital storage of spatial data and metadata enables the long-term preservation of geoinformation and its curation, manipulation and integration, thus avoiding duplication of effort and enabling the generation of new information and their broadcast among researchers and citizens. It is important that geospatial information be standardized according to governmental policies, and not dispersed in isolated databases which are not accessible to concerned parties. The Brazilian decree no. 6.666, from November 27, 2008, established the Brazilian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (Infraestrutura Nacional de Dados Espaciais, INDE), an integrated set of technologies, policies, standards, coordination and monitoring mechanisms, and agreements necessary to facilitate and organize the production, management, access, sharing, broadcasting and use of the geospatial data. Embrapa's 5th Master Plan (PDE 2008-2011-2023) also highlights the importance of information management for the Company. Thus, the GeoInfo project aims to consolidate the bases for the deployment of a safe environment for the management and organization of the spatial data produced by Embrapa and the integration of this data with the platform indicated by the Brazilian National Commission of Cartography (Comissão Nacional de Cartografia, CONCAR) for INDE.

Objectives: To strengthen geospatial information management within Embrapa by means of the deploying a storage and management structure for data and metadata in accordance with INDE directives. This structure will be deployed in alignment with knowledge representation models already in use within the Company. The project also involves qualifying human resources for geoinformation management, data and metadata cataloguing, defining directives for best practices in spatial information management, and developing representation models for geospatial knowledge to align the spatial data and metadata repository with Embrapa's information systems on natural resources.

Expected results: We expect to qualify multipliers for information and geospatial knowledge management, and to deploy a repository for the storage and management of geospatial data and metadata, which is to be validated using the information produced within the Saltus (GEE-Florestas), Fluxus (GEE-Grãos) and Pecus projects, in order to organize the production, storage, access, sharing and use of the geoinformation for agricultural research. We foresee the definition of directives for data and metadata cataloging procedures in accordance with INDE, which, aligned with the processual model drawn for the representation of geospatial knowledge, will provide resources for the formulation of a model for information management and geospatial knowledge representation within Embrapa. This initiative will enable new discoveries, and decision-making processes oriented using the existing information.

Leader: Debora Pignatari Drucker – Analyst at Embrapa Satellite Monitoring

Institutions involved:

• Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa)
• Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
• National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA)