José Arnaldo Frutuoso Roveda

Development of a water quality index using a fuzzy logic: A case study for the Sorocaba river

Due to growing urbanization and industrialization, the environment is suffering from pollution of rivers, degradation of soils and deteriorated air quality. Quality indices appear to be useful to evaluate the conditions of these media. The aim of this study was the development of a water quality index using a fuzzy inference system, since such an approach has proved advantageous in addressing problems that are subjective by nature or for which the data are uncertain. The methodology employed was based on this inference system, and considered the nine water quality parameters employed by CETESB (Companhia de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental, São Paulo, Brazil) to evaluate water quality. After assessment of the data using the index, a comparison was made with the WQI (Water Quality Index), which is used for the monitoring of various water bodies, including in the study region. The results obtained using the index developed on the basis of fuzzy inference were found to be more useful than those derived from the method currently used by CETESB, since losses and/or omissions concerning individual parameters were minimized.

Distribution of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soils and sugar cane crops at Corumbataí river basin, São Paulo State, Brazil.

The common use of phosphate fertilizers NPK and amendments in sugar cane crops in Brazilian agriculture may increase the (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K activity concentrations in soils and their availability for plants and human food chain. Thus, the main aim of this study was to evaluate the distribution of (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K in soils and sugar cane crops in the Corumbataí river basin, São Paulo State, Brazil. The gamma spectrometry was utilized to measure the (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K activity concentration in all samples. The soil-to-sugar cane transfer factors (TF) were quantified using the ratio between the radionuclide activity concentration in sugar cane and its activity concentration in soil. The results show that, although radionuclides incorporated in phosphate fertilizers and amendments are annually added in the sugar cane crops, if utilized in accordance with the recommended rates, their use does not lead to hazards levels in soils. The soil-to-sugar cane transfer of radionuclides occurred in the following order (40)K>(226)Ra>(232)Th. Therefore, under these conditions, radionuclides intake through consumption of sugar is not hazardous to human health.

A system for evaluating the impact of noise pollution on the population's health

Abstract The aim of this study was to develop a support sys-tem for the evaluation of noise pollution, applied to the central urban area of Rio Claro, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Data were obtained from noise measurements and interviews with the population, generating the following indicators: equivalent sound level ( L eq ), traf-fic noise index ( L TNI ), and a participatory diagnosis ( D p ), integrated through a fuzzy inference system ( FIS ). The proposed system allowed classifying the measure-ment points according to the degree of impact of noise pollution on the population’s health ( I PS ) in the study area. Impact was considered significant in 31.4% of the measurement points and very significant in 62.9%. The FIS can be adjusted to local conditions, allowing generalization and thus also supporting noise pollu-tion evaluation and respective environmental noise management in other geographic areas.Fuzzy Logic; Sound Contamination; Noise Effects Resumen El objetivo del trabajo fue desarrollar un sistema de apoyo a la evaluacion de la contaminacion acustica, aplicado en la zona central de Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brasil. Con este fin, se obtuvieron datos mediante me-diciones sonoras y entrevistas a la poblacion, generan-do como indicadores el nivel sonoro equivalente (O objetivo do trabalho foi desenvolver um sistema de apoio a avaliacao da poluicao sonora, aplicado na zona central de Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brasil. Para isso, dados foram obtidos por meio de medicoes sonoras e entrevistas com a populacao, gerando como indicadores o nivel sonoro equivalente (Leq ), o indice de ruido de trafego (LTNI ) e um diagnostico participativo (Dp ), integrados por intermedio de um sistema de inferencia fuzzy (SIF). Como resultado, o sistema proposto permitiu classificar os pontos avaliados quanto ao grau de impacto da poluicao sonora sobre a saude da populacao (IPS ) na area de estudo, que pode ser considerado significativo em 31,4% dos pontos e muito significativo em 62,9%. A possibilidade de adequar o SIF de acordo com as condicoes de estudo viabiliza a sua generalizacao e, desta forma, apoia a avaliacao e respectiva gestao do ruido ambiental em outras regioes.The aim of this study was to develop a support system for the evaluation of noise pollution, applied to the central urban area of Rio Claro, São Paulo State, Brazil. Data were obtained from noise measurements and interviews with the population, generating the following indicators: equivalent sound level (Leq ), traffic noise index (LTNI ), and a participatory diagnosis (Dp ), integrated through a fuzzy inference system (FIS). The proposed system allowed classifying the measurement points according to the degree of impact of noise pollution on the populations health (IPS ) in the study area. Impact was considered significant in 31.4% of the measurement points and very significant in 62.9%. The FIS can be adjusted to local conditions, allowing generalization and thus also supporting noise pollution evaluation and respective environmental noise management in other geographic areas.

Statistical analysis of texture in trunk images for biometric identification of tree species

The identification of tree species is a key step for sustainable management plans of forest resources, as well as for several other applications that are based on such surveys. However, the present available techniques are dependent on the presence of tree structures, such as flowers, fruits, and leaves, limiting the identification process to certain periods of the year. Therefore, this article introduces a study on the application of statistical parameters for texture classification of tree trunk images. For that, 540 samples from five Brazilian native deciduous species were acquired and measures of entropy, uniformity, smoothness, asymmetry (third moment), mean, and standard deviation were obtained from the presented textures. Using a decision tree, a biometric species identification system was constructed and resulted to a 0.84 average precision rate for species classification with 0.83accuracy and 0.79 agreement. Thus, it can be considered that the use of texture presented in trunk images can represent an important advance in tree identification, since the limitations of the current techniques can be overcome.

Pattern recognition in trunk images based on co-occurrence descriptors: A proposal applied to tree species identification

Tree species identification is required for many applications. However, current techniques are dependent on the presence of morphological structures such as leaves, which restricts its use in certain situations and seasons. In this context, the use of trunk images can be an alternative. Therefore, the present study developed a pattern recognition based on co-occurrence descriptors, aiming evaluate its performance in the identification of 8 tree species from the Brazilian deciduous native forest, achieving promising results, with precision better than 0.8 for most of them, accuracy equivalent to 0.77 and average area under curve by Receiver Operating Characteristic of 0.88, during the tests with cross-validation sets.

A New Methodology for Application of Impact’s Identification Using Fuzzy Relation

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a mechanism used by governments and private institutions to predict environmental damage and optimize positive impacts. One of the greatest challenges of the EIA process is to achieve an effective integration of the various tools and the analytical procedures. This paper proposes a new methodology for the application of impact’s identification and characterization matrices by the use of Fuzzy Logic, using specifically Fuzzy Relations Theory. Three Weight Matrices of State and Association, for each type of expertise (physical, biotic, and anthropic) were created. Fuzzy Relations to aggregate all these matrices were used, and a Weighted Response Matrix was obtained. The developed fuzzy methodology was applied to real cases of EIA, aiming to compare the results. The EIA Mario Covas Road Program—Modified Southern Section was used, and the fuzzy interaction matrix proves to be a successful tool. Because of the results, it was possible to infer that the new methodology, using fuzzy approach is an effective and practical tool in the Environmental Impact Assessment.

Evaluation of Green Spaces Using Fuzzy Systems

Green urban areas have natural attributes that provide important environmental services. However, their impacts depend on the local characteristics, so it is necessary to evaluate the environmental potentials of such areas individually. The lack of methodologies to assess the quality of green urban areas led to the implementation of the present work, which proposes a calculation model for assessing the environmental quality of these spaces. The construction of the model used fuzzy systems capable of handling the subjectivity of the variables, with the creation of fuzzy rule-based systems that permitted working with parameters of different natures. The variables employed were the percentage of vegetation in the area in question and its quality, the latter being determined by analysis of the degree of maturation. Forest formations were considered potentially more advantageous for the provision of environmental services, compared to savannah and grasslands. The model was constructed considering the physical and biological characteristics of the city of Sorocaba, as well as Brazilian standard classifications of vegetation types and their successional stages.

Sustainability Index: A Fuzzy Approach for a Municipal Decision Support System

Changing the behavior and habits of people and promoting sustainable production and consumption, has caused investment and action by Governments in promoting sustainability as a development model. Although many studies have been developed to evaluate the conditions for sustainability, few take into account the economic, environmental and social aspects altogether. Thus, the aim of this study is the development of an index to measure the degree of sustainability of municipalities using indicators for the social, demographic, economic and environmental dimensions. The methodology employed here is based on the concepts of fuzzy logic which models is subjectivity, uncertainty and imprecision. The index is applied to all 5,565 municipalities in Brazil generating a national sustainability study. After an assessment of the data using our index, a comparison is made with the Municipal Human Development index. Similar results are obtained by both methodologies. However, we argue that a fuzzy logic approach is useful since it uses linguistic variables and is intuitive to implement. Thus, the sustainability index is suitable to aggregate the various indicators and it is an important tool for decision makers. Since it provides information that is useful for the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of public policies.

NEURO-FUZZY MODELING: A PROMISING ALTERNATIVE FOR RISK ANALYSIS IN URBAN AFFORESTATION MANAGEMENT

1 Received on 04.11.2016 accepted for publication on 12.12.2017. 2 Universidade Estadual Paulista, Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, São José dos Campos, SP Brasil. E-mail: <adrianobressane@ymail.com> and <adriano.bressane@ict.unesp.br>. 3 Prefeitura Municipal de Nova Prata, Nova Prata, RS Brasil. E-mail: <florestal@novaprata.gov.br>. 4 Universidade Estadual Paulista, Campus de Sorocaba, Sorocaba, São Paulo Brasil. E-mail: <carloshbiagolini@ig.com.br>. 5 Universidade Estadual Paulista, Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Sorocaba, SP-Brasil. E-mail: <roveda@sorocaba.unesp.br> and <sandra@sorocaba.unesp.br>. 6 Universidade Católica de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Ambiental, Campinas, SP Brasil. E-mail: <felipe_fengler@hotmail.com>. *Corresponding author.

SISTEMA DE APOIO À GESTÃO DE ÁREAS VERDES NA PRESERVAÇÃO PERMANENTE DE CORPOS HÍDRICOS URBANOS

The conservation of urban green areas is among the key strategies for achieving healthy and sustainable cities. However, the multiplicity of the involved factors requires an integrated analysis by means of a logical and structured procedure. Therefore, this article aims to present the proposal for a decision support system for the management of green areas in public domain, in areas of permanent preservation of urban water bodies. For its development, guidelines of the plannning method through scenarios were adopted, by which the aspects related to the problem and routing solutions were analysed. The main used materials correspond to the works of technical literature and legislation, raised through search terms along with bibliographic and legislative seats. From the analysis of these materials, we studied the actual functions of these areas of permanent preservation and the factors affecting their performance and protection. As a result, we obtained a structured model in key decision for the selection of the location alternatives and their function-space capability.