IBP1443_19

DIAGNOSIS AND ENVIROMENTAL

MANAGEMENT IN FOREST RESTORATION
PROJECTS IN PIPELINE WORKS
Fernando M. Ramos¹, Marcelo Schmid², Rodrigo Almeida³,
Fernando Cionek4, Natalie Mendes5, Isabel C. Santos6, Otto M.
Netto7, Yasmin I. Maximo8, César V. Reis9, Milena Silva10

Copyright 2019, Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP

This Technical Paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Pipeline Conference and Exhibition 2019, held
between 03 and 05 of September, in Rio de Janeiro. This Technical Paper was selected for presentation by the
Technical Committee of the event according to the information contained in the final paper submitted by the
author(s). The organizers are not supposed to translate or correct the submitted papers. The material as it is
presented, does not necessarily represent Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute’ opinion, or that of its
Members or Representatives. Authors consent to the publication of this Technical Paper in the Rio Pipeline
Conference and Exhibition 2019.

Abstract

Duct transport, done through ducts and pipes, has many advantages, such as agility and safety
for transportation. However, its use can be related with several negative environment effects,
like forest fragmentation. These impacts cannot be entirely avoided, but it is possible to mitigate
and compensate for the negative effects, through forest restoration, for example. This process,
that aims to restore, protect and, mainly, sustain the quality and quantity of its natural resources,
counts on several actions to be executed, mainly in the field. Regarding that, usually,
restorations areas have great extensions and presents difficult to access, the use of
geotechnologies, such as drones and Geographic Information Systems, can facilitate and
improve an environmental analysis, focusing in areas restoration. In this context, the present
study aims to demonstrate the use and contributions of geotechnologies since planning activities
until monitoring the development from forest restoration projects. The study was made in areas,
located in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais States, adjacent to the pipeline
constructions. Through drones and geoprocessing softwares, spatial and temporal analyses and
land use mapping were accomplished. As a result of these analyses and processings, it was
possible to notice that there were development of planted seedlings, regeneration of vegetation
and increase in forest density. In addition, it has been proven that these geotechnologies
optimize the procedures performed in the field, promoting greater efficiency in the use of
resources. Therefore, Grupo Index recommends the use of geotechnologies in forest restoration
projects in pipeline works.

Keywords:.Geotechnologies. Forest Restoration.Enviromental Diagnosis.

______________________________
1
Biologist – Index Florestal
2
Msc. Forest Engineer - Index Florestal
3
Msc Biologist – Index Ambiental
4
Forest Engineer – Index Florestal
5
Forest Engineer – Index Florestal
6
Forest Engineer – Index Florestal
7
Msc. Chemical Engineer – Index Florestal
8
Forest Engineer – Index Florestal
9
Msc. Civil Engineer – NTS
10
Forest Engineer student – Index Florestal
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1. Introduction

Duct transport, which is done through ducts and pipes, has many advantages, such as
the agility in the transportation system, safety, when compared to the road transport, in addition
to avoiding cargo thefts, among other factors.
Despite the importance of ducts used in transport, it is important to emphasize the
environmental care that this activity requires since, in areas adjacent to the pipeline, the
environments are fragmented with their edaphic characteristics altered and with little chance of
natural regeneration of vegetation.
The construction and use of a pipeline can be associated with several environmental
effects, such as decrease of air quality, increase of noise, drastic changes in soil physiology,
alteration in geology, alteration and fragmentation of wildlife’s habitat, degradation of forests
and vegetation of the surface, among other direct and indirect environmental effects
(WILLIAMS, 2012).
The environmental impacts of pipelines cannot be entirely avoided, but it is possible to
mitigate and compensate for the negative effects (WILLIAMS, 2012). One possible way to
compensate for the negative impacts of a pipeline is the forest restitution, also called forest
restoration. According to the 13º article of the 5.975/2006 Decree from the Brazilian Forest
Code, the forest reposition is the compensation of the volume of raw material extracted from
natural vegetation by the volume of raw material resulting from forest planting to generate
inventory or recovery of forest cover. Dunster (1996) affirms that forest restoration consists in
establishing a set of actions to be performed in an ecosystem, in favor of its restoration,
protection and, mainly, maintenance of the quality and quantity of its natural resources.
There are several actions and techniques that can be used in forest restoration, normally
there are basic steps that are followed as, field preparation, the opening of pits, seedling
plantation, fertilization, weeding, mowing, monitoring, and others. To assign which actions will
be more functional and the specifications for each activity is necessary to execute a complete
analysis of the area to be restored.
Regarding that, usually, restoration areas have great extensions and presents difficult to
access and monitoring, it is made use of geotechnologies. These technologies can be used to
facilitate and improve an environmental analysis, focusing in restoration areas.
Geotechnologies are a set of tools and techniques that allows us to obtain important biophysics
data, monitor human activities on the landscape, solve environmental problems, help decision-
making tasks, and furthermore other useful activities (JENSEN, 2009; CÂMARA, 1996).
Leite et al. (2010) affirm that Geotechnologies are an important tool to supervise and
perform environmental analysis since it facilitates the earth’s surface management. A UAV
(Unmanned aerial vehicle), such as drones, is considered an advanced geotechnology in the
XXI century and its uses are improving research and technical works, especially in the
agriculture and environmental field. When using a UAV to obtain aerial images it is possible
to improve the dynamism of the image and its spatial and temporal resolutions (SILVA et al.,
2016).
UAV technologies permit us to identify, in the landscape, critical areas in need of
recovery, analyze and accurately determine the land use of an area in a more practical way.
When working with a UAV it is possible to perform detailed temporal analyses in a short
amount of time. According to Silva et al. (2015), analyses of spatial and temporal variation are
techniques used in landscape ecology, especially to support restoration projections in
ecosystems that were negatively impacted. Through the data obtained by spatial and temporal
analysis, it is possible to establish optimized actions to restore the ecosystem characteristics and
functions. Through temporal analysis is possible to monitor vegetation development, quantify

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areas where vegetation is regenerating, monitor planting and recovery activities, as well as the
progress of the restoration project.
Unfortunately, even that the use of Geotechnologies, such as UAV, is extremely helpful
for giving a general analysis of the condition of an area, there are certain characteristics of an
environment that is needed to go into the field to collect the data. One example is to collect
flora data, aerial images provided by the use of UAV are not close and detailed enough to a
botanist be able to accurately identify a trees species. The type of soil could sometimes be
difficult to determine and other characteristics. Even if, currently, we are not able to do a full
environmental diagnosis of an area using only geotechnologies, its uses permit a fast, practical
and accurate collection of data of several conditions that facilitates the field survey.

2. Objectives

The present study aims to demonstrate the use and contributions of geotechnologies
since planning activities until monitoring the development from forest restoration projects.

3. Material and Methods

To mitigate the standard environmental effects of the installation and utilization of

pipelines, in 2017 Grupo Index was hired to execute an environmental analysis and elaborate a
restoration forest activities plan for 70 different areas, located in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and
Minas Gerais States, the total area correspond to 210 hectares. These areas are adjacent to the
pipeline constructions and suffered from degradation caused by anthropic activities.
Considering the difficulty of finding a specific restoration methodology for each area, Grupo
Index implemented a methodology for the diagnosis and evaluation of the environment
conditions in the areas under the management of the NTS Company.
The diagnosis and evaluation are crucial steps to determinate the techniques of
environmental recovery, it’s important to use the correct techniques to make it possible for a
certain area to return its biotic functions. Although there are several recovery strategies to be
adopted, monitoring and evaluation are not always easy to follow and validate. The
development methodology consists of using a Drone (UAV) to obtain current aerial images to
observe maximum elements inherent to environmental conditions and the quality of an area.
To perform the aerial imaging of areas with Drone, it was first developed, in the office,
flight plans for each area using the DroneDeploy online platform. In the flight plan, it is
established details like flight altitude, percentage of front overlap and side overlap, speed,
direction, and 3D capture. On field, the Drone was programmed with the flight's planes to,
following the operator's commands, execute the previously established routes to image the
study area. In a flight, it is possible to capture hundreds of aerial photographs that are processed
in the office to obtain a high-resolution space orthomosaic of the area. It is through the
orthomosaic that the analyzes of geoprocessing, temporal and spatial are an accomplishment,
linking information on the area through Geographic Information Systems. In the office, the
present work made use of QGIS software for the geoprocessing steps.
Using QGIS software it was able to create the land use and occupancy map, spatial-
temporal analysis map, structurer an operation of restoration using spatial information for
monitoring and planning actions, constantly updated information about the project progress,
elaborate maps to be used by the field analysts, guiding the progress of their activities and for
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quantification of the areas where the restoration is taking place. All of these procedures are
based on orthomosaics obtained through the Drone flight and result in information about the
areas, the development of the activities and their results.
More specifically regarding the land use map of the areas, the following themes were
established as criteria for classification: a) Tree vegetation: constituted by medium and large
tree individuals; b) Herbaceous / shrub vegetation: consisting of grass species, shrubs, tree
seedlings and herbs; c) Planted area: identified by the presence of planted seedlings and soil
preparation in an area with predominance of grass species.
In 2018, the aerial imaging of the areas for recovery was acquired, enabling diagnose
the situation of each one area. Through the orthomosaic analysis, it was able to identify several
characteristics from the environment, highlighting where the area was already with native plant
regeneration, where it is needed to apply restoration techniques and other peculiarities that may
be present. But, as we aren’t able to collect all the needed information through the aerial images,
the orthomosaic was used to optimize and plan the field survey.

Figure 1. Diagnosis process in a forest restoration area

In Figure 1, it is possible to see an orthomosaic of an area, also demonstrating some of

the data collected during the field survey. Using this two analysis for in loco evaluations, were
possible to observe elements inherent to environmental quality, such as the existence of nearby
plant remnants, recruitment of seedlings, the existence of fences for protection, soil
characteristics, and other interferences. It was possible to identify the recoverable areas and to
establish the necessary activities to achieve good forest restoration parameters.
Aiming for a successful forest restoration project, different actions and techniques were
prescribed for each area. Among the techniques prescribed there was field preparation, the
opening of pits, seedling plantation, weeding, mowing, seedling monitoring, fences
construction and maintenance, and others. After implementing the restoration techniques the
forest quality was determined by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of forest restoration
projects, based on the resolution of the State Environmental Institute (INEA) No. 143/2017.
This resolution defines a series of biometric parameters to determine the suitability scale of
each environmental recovery project.

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To monitor the project progress of some interest areas in 2018, one year after the first
Drone’s flight, it was flighted again and again in the same interest areas in 2019. The purpose
was to evaluate the development of vegetation and the development of areas where seedlings
were planted, based on a spatio-temporal analysis, comparing the images obtained in the two
periods.

4. Results

From the spatial and temporal analysis of certain areas, it was observed evolution in the
vegetation regeneration process from the orthomosaic (Figure 2), corresponding to the
comparison between the land use map conducted in 2018 and 2019. It is possible to visualize
the density increase in the vegetation, which is shown in Table 1, which presents a comparison
of the areas (ha) of the subjects classified in the mapping.

Figure 2. Spatial and Temporal Variation Analysis

Table 1. Comparison between the area themes in 2018 and 2019

Theme 2018 (ha) 2018 (%) 2019 (ha) 2019 (%)

Tree vegetation 5,08 4,49 5,16 14,29
Herbaceous/Shrub 0,27 84,39 0,86 85,71
Planted area 0,67 11,13 0 0
TOTAL 6,02 100 6,02 100

The comparison of areas between the two years is especially shown in Figure 3, the
thematic classification of the area in question, allows us to analyze the dynamics of the
transformations occurring there, as well as the development of the restoration. From this figure,
it can be seen that most of the area classified in 2018 as "Planted area", became "Herbaceous /
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Shrub vegetation", demonstrating the success of the seedlings planting for recovery of the area.
Also, it is visible the conversion of areas that in 2018 were composed by herbaceous/shrub
vegetation and now are classified as tree vegetation, evidencing the natural regeneration
occurred in this interval time. It is also verified that most of the areas that were classified as
"Tree vegetation" in 2018, remained untouched and developed, constituting in 2019 a more
dense vegetation.

Figure 3. Thematic classification between 2018 and 2019

Looking at the generated results from the use of geotechnologies to obtain information
about the area under study, is was verified success in the initial phase of the forest restoration
plan, since the areas, where it was applied restoration techniques, clearly shows vegetation
development spatially and quantitatively.
In addition to already promoting some important results for the restoration project, this
remote evaluation of the areas made from geotechnologies optimizes the procedures performed
in the field, since it previously identifies critical areas, areas where planting of seedlings has
developed and others that need intervention, directing the monitoring, maintenance, and
measurement activities. This efficiency was proven in the work done in the field since the
allocation of time and resources was optimized from geoprocessing analysis realized in the
office, so the work was executed with greater agility, better use of resources and still obtaining
accurate information for the project.

5. Conclusion

Through the present study, it was possible to conclude that the use of geotechnologies
combined with field work in forest restoration projects promotes: better allocation of resources,
shorter time of work, lower costs with field operations, and better and more accurate results.
Therefore, geotechnology presents itself not only as a support for operations, but as an
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alternative methodology to obtain results and information for a more effective management of
restoration projects. Using geotechnology makes it possible to present the results in a spatial
way, favoring the visual interpretation of the information. Therefore, Index Group recommends
the combination of the geotechnology with field surveys for analysing and diagnosing areas for
forest restoration projects in pipelines works.

6. References

CÂMARA, G. Geoprocessamento para projetos ambientais. INPE, 1996.

DroneDeploy official website, https://www.dronedeploy.com/.
DUNSTER, J.; DUNSTER, K. Dictionary of natural resource management. Vancouver:
University of British Columbia, 1996. 379p.
JENSEN, J. R. (1949) Sensoriamento remoto do ambiente: uma perspectiva em recursos
terrestres/tradução José Carlos Neves Epiphanio et al. São José dos Campos,SP.2009 604 p.
LEITE, M. E.; LEITE, M. R. & CLEMENTE, C. M. S. 2010. O uso do solo e o conflito por
água no alto rio Riachão – norte de minas gerais: uma análise Auxiliada pelas
geotecnologias. Revista Geográfica Acadêmica, 4(1): 46 – 55.
WILLIAMS, T. Pipelines: Environmental Considerations. Library of Parliament’s in Brief
Publication n°. 2012-37-E. 5 July 2012.
SILVA, K. G., et al. Análise da dinâmica espaço-temporal dos fragmentos florestais da sub-
bacia hidrográfica do Rio Alegre, ES. CERNE, vol. 21, núm. 2, abril-junio, 2015, pp. 311-
318.
SILVA, F. C. M., SILVA, N. M., and CÂNDIDO, A. K. A. A. Seleção de técnicas de
classificação de fotografias aéreas derivadas de VANT na análise ambiental de área de
cerrado. REDE – Revista Eletrônica do PRODEMA Fortaleza, Brasil, v. 10, n. 1, p. 74-84,
jan./jun. 2016.