From long-term climate change projections to the availability of real-time information, meteorology has direct implications for the lives of the population. Understand tools like the app SOS Rain, for example, can prevent people from putting themselves in risky situations. Reading climate modeling can be used to predict changes in migratory flows, enabling the planning of public policies.
The search for a common language that allows for better dialogue between academia, society and public authorities on weather and climate studies was the main objective of the Meteorological and Climate Modeling workshop, this Wednesday (22), in the Embrapa Cnptia auditorium. The meeting was part of the seminar program of the Migration Observatory in Sao Paulo.
Professor Jurandir Zullo Júnior, coordinator of the Cocen (Coordination of Interdisciplinary Research Centers and Nuclei) and researcher at Cepagri (Center for Meteorological and Climate Research Applied to Agriculture), opened the event highlighting the celebrations of World Meteorology Day, March 23, the date of the founding of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) from the UN.
For Luiz Augusto Toledo Machado, coordinator of the Fapesp SOS Chuva thematic project, “the great challenge for researchers is for the population to better understand the tools so that they are able to reduce their vulnerability”. The SOS Chuva application was developed so that the population receives information directly on their cell phone, understands it and can act without the intervention of civil defense. The tool already has more than 50 thousand downloads, and provides real-time information about rainfall, such as the location and intensity of precipitation and lightning (read more).
According to Machado, the immediate prediction of weather events is a very new science and emerged with the increase in natural disasters due to storms. “Urbanization and consequent occupation of risk regions makes immediate prediction very important to reduce the population’s vulnerability.”
But it's not just the short term that worries meteorology. Climate modeling focuses on longer time scales, with quarterly, semi-annual and seasonal forecasts. There are also studies on climate change that evaluate, for example, the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, or deforestation, and the consequences of this for the coming decades. This information has direct implications for agricultural planning and electricity generation, but its use is even more comprehensive. “Any economic activity that depends on the climate can benefit from climate modeling”, says Marcos Heil Costa, professor at the Federal University of Viçosa, who gave the lecture Limits and potentials of climate modeling.
An example of this is the influence of projections of temperature changes on the production of commodities and its consequent impact on the migratory flows of workers in seasonal crops. “The reconfiguration of sugarcane and orange plantations, for example, based on projections about temperature changes, will certainly alter migratory flows. They may not change the spaces of origin, but they will certainly change those of destination and the dynamics of the comings and goings of migration”, explains Roberta Peres, researcher at the "Elza Berquó" Center for Population Studies (Nepo) and the Migration Observatory, a Fapesp/Cnpq thematic project that investigates the trajectory of internal and international migration in the State of São Paulo. For her, this study is essential to enable public policies that prepare new regions to receive these immigrants (Follow the work of the group on Facebook).
At the workshop, the work Unknown Relatives Album, produced by students from the Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor) guided by professor Susana Dias and researcher Sebastian Wiedemann.
