‘Rio 60ºC – Climate Resilience and Extreme Events in the Marvelous City’ aims to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events, especially storms, in Rio de Janeiro.

To understand and warn about the risks posed by heavy rainfall, the Rio 60ºC project team worked on three different initiatives. The first was an extensive data analysis to map the regions most vulnerable to heavy rainfall in the city. The second was to identify and illustrate a series of measures to be taken by communities and, above all, by public authorities to reduce disaster risks. Finally, collaborating reporters went into the field and interviewed residents and experts to find out how climate change is already impacting people’s lives, particularly workers.

Check out the interactive map.

Brazil is widely known as one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet, but despite having a marine territory of 3.6 million km², much of the focus is on terrestrial ecosystems. Focusing on connectivity, the project “O mar que habita em mim: ecossistemas conectados para fortalecer a cultura oceânica no Brasil” (The sea within me: connected ecosystems to strengthen ocean culture in Brazil), involves creating two products: (i) a report on the threats to marine biodiversity in Brazil today, and (ii) a scientific, data-driven illustration narrating the journey of a PET bottle cap thrown into a river in the Northeast interior to the sea, showing the impacts along the way and at the final destination, where the cumulative effect of human actions results in multiple threats.

The illustration will be presented in an interactive report to be published by Ambiental Media.

“Cerrado, berço das águas do Brasil” (Cerrado, Cradle of Brazil’s Waters) is a platform that presents data on the conservation status of Cerrado waters in an educational manner, using 3D maps, dashboards, images, and stories. The most biodiverse savanna on the planet houses eight of Brazil’s 12 hydrographic regions and three of its main aquifers. Despite being essential for the country’s water security, the Cerrado has been dubbed the “biome of slaughter” due to the increasing deforestation caused by soybean monoculture.

The grant also covers the production of the Capivara Post newsletter, featuring reports developed from the analysis of socio-environmental data, rich in data visualizations. The goal is to expand the reader community and engage the audience.

An award-winning report and data visualization platform that, in its new version, will go beyond the Brazilian border of the Amazon to show the impacts of human actions on the waters of the largest river basin on the planet on a continental scale. Robust data analysis conducted by scientists and journalists, translated into easy-to-understand 3D maps and reports that innovate by placing water as the central element in measuring the impacts of human activities on the conservation of this essential biome.

The project is run by Ambiental Media, a Brazilian science journalism start-up led by journalist Thiago Medaglia. With a multidisciplinary team, the productions include data visualization and infographics by Laura Kurtzberg; journalistic reports and articles; reports, analyses and policy briefs; videos for social networks; documentary photography and science-based journalistic investigations.

Browse Aquazônia.