Our initiative aims to strategically maximize the mitigation of climate change effects in urban communities using Machine Learning and satellite imagery. To learn more about our research framework, click the button below:
EcoAção Brasil (formerly Comunidade EcoAção in Brazil) is an independent organization aligned with the 11th Goal of the UN Agenda 2030, promoting the development of sustainable cities and communities. Our mission is to use technology to solve environmental challenges and transform the relationship between humanity and the environment.
Our objectives as a socio-environmental initiative reinforce our mission to combine technology and innovation in order to not only create a positive impact, but also generate even more change. They are divided into six principles:
Encouraging sustainable habits, such as the correct separation of waste, the strategic planting of trees in urban heat islands, and the adoption of ecological measures in everyday life.
Applying Machine Learning and satellite imagery through the Tocantins Framework to identify thermal anomalies, developing effective environmental solutions that increase positive impact on society and the ecosystem.
Promoting environmental education in partnership with schools, training students and their communities to become active agents of sustainability.
Working with municipal governments to implement data-driven urban planning policies, sustainable initiatives, and targeted interventions in areas most affected by urban heat islands.
Engage citizens, NGOs and local entrepreneurs in the environmental cause, promoting events, workshops and awareness campaigns.
Restore degraded areas through strategic urban reforestation based on thermal anomaly data, water conservation and biodiversity recovery in cities.
We work to create greener and more ecological cities, preserving natural resources for future generations.
Change happens when we work together. We build bridges between individuals, communities and institutions to enhance our impact.
We act with integrity and responsibility, ensuring that our initiatives are clear and accessible.
Knowledge is the basis for real and lasting change.
We believe in the power of technology to positively transform the environment and society.
We overcome challenges with determination and adapt our strategies to ensure a sustainable and balanced future.
At EcoAção Brasil, we combine geospatial analysis, Machine Learning, and satellite imagery to mitigate intra-urban heat islands.
Our study, "The Tocantins Framework," introduces a robust method to identify thermal anomalies and quantify them with two complementary metrics: Severity Score and Impact Score.
Urban Heat Islands make cities warmer than nearby rural zones, but the impact is not evenly distributed.
Two neighborhoods just blocks apart can experience very different temperatures due to asphalt density, vegetation, airflow, and built-up surfaces.
This creates unequal thermal risk, while cooler pockets can also emerge as intra-urban cool islands.
Most climate analyses still focus on city-level averages.
There has been no standardized method to systematically detect intra-urban heat/cool anomalies, measure their intensity, and identify who is most affected.
The Tocantins Framework was created to fill this gap.
Using 40 years of Landsat data processed in Google Earth Engine, it identifies and quantifies micro-heat and cool islands while correcting for city-to-rural temperature bias.
The detection pipeline combines statistical filtering with contextual modeling.
Detection alone is not enough. Each anomaly is quantified using two independent and complementary scores:
Measures the core anomaly itself by combining thermal intensity and area.
Measures the Extended Anomaly Zone by integrating intensity, spatial reach, and continuity across surrounding areas.
The two scores showed weak correlation (15.4% explained variance), confirming they capture different dimensions.
About 37% of anomalies had zero impact score, indicating isolated cores that require different interventions than anomalies with large extended zones.
Cities can identify where critical hotspots form, which cool zones protect neighborhoods, and where greening actions create the greatest impact.
This supports targeted climate adaptation planning with open and reproducible data.
Meet our team of developers and researchers who are working to make EcoAção a reality.
Founder, researcher and developer of the project.
Professor of Basic, Technical and Technological Education - IFTO - Palmas Campus.
Researcher focused on AI and full-stack development.
Machine Learning Engineer and Scientific Reviewer.
Researcher focused on machine learning and computational science.
Researcher focused on mathematical and scientific models.
Researcher focused on public scientific dissemination.
In charge of strategic project promotion, creating content to increase the project's reach on social media.
