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Monitoring of the Paraíba do Sul River

ORBTY has developed an online platform to monitor turbidity and the appearance of macrophytes.

The Paraíba do Sul River is an extremely important river for Brazil. Within its catchment basin live about 14 million inhabitants that generate a GDP of about 12% of the national territory. However, despite its importance, the river is little recognized as a natural heritage by the local population, a reality that the REGENERA program proposes to change through actions that bring the population of São José dos Campos (SP) to reconnect with this water resource.

And for managers and the general population to monitor the historical and current condition of river water quality, ORBTY created an online platform to monitor turbidity (transparency) and the presence of macrophytes (aquatic plants – bioindicator of pollution).

Two types of maps were developed for macrophyte monitoring. The first shows the areas of occurrence and classifies the plants according to time: the greener, the longer the macrophytes were in that place. On the other hand, the more blue, the less time, which suggests new growth areas. The second map, on the other hand, shows the time when the growth occurred: the redder, the more recent. Red areas deserve special attention, since they are places where the quality of the aquatic ecosystem is declining.

The platform also includes graphics that show the monitoring of macrophytes and turbidity over time (as shown in the figure above). The first graph shows the macrophyte area in hectares along the monitored stretch from 2016 to 2021, while the second graph shows the monitoring of turbidity from 1984 to 2021 for a section of the river.

Época Crescimento Macrófitas

Ocorrência Macrófitas

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Launch of the cooperation network by Parque Rio Paraíba do Sul

On September 26, 2021, ORBTY was present at the launch of the cooperation network in support of the Rio Paraíba do Sul Park, in São José dos Campos, which brought together technology startups, research institutions, companies and social organizations in the city. The goal of the creation of the park is to bring the population closer to the river and expand people’s awareness of the importance of environmental preservation and, in particular, of rivers to have a healthy city.

On this day, there was the planting of about 15 native trees on the banks of the Jaguari River, near the meeting with Paraíba do Sul, in a place that will integrate the area of the future park, a project planned in the SJC Master Plan to be carried out by 2030. In addition, there was also the presentation of the action plan of the cooperation group, which involves monitoring of water quality, geoprocessing studies, implementation of sanitation systems, tree planting and sustainability and environmental education projects with the local population and students of the school network.

Neste dia, houve o plantio de cerca de 15 árvores nativas nas margens do rio Jaguari, próximo do encontro com o Paraíba do Sul, em local que irá integrar a área do futuro parque, projeto previsto no Plano Diretor de SJC para ser realizado até 2030. Além disso, também houve a apresentação do plano de ação do grupo de cooperação, que envolve monitoramento da qualidade da água, estudos de geoprocessamento, implementação de sistemas de saneamento, plantio de árvores e projetos de sustentabilidade e educação ambiental com a população local e estudantes da rede de ensino.