Tools for decision support in the Amazon River: the Piatam project

Known as one of the most important sources of fresh water in the world, the Amazon River system plays a major role in the Amazonian hydrological balance, economy and subsistence activities in the region. With the discovery of commercial reserves of gas and oil, the Brazilian petroleum company, Petrobras, started in the eighties the exploration of crude oil and natural gas in the Urucu province in the municipality of Coari, Amazonas State. The oil is extracted and piped 280 km through the forest, wetlands and Urucu River to the company's harbor in the Amazon River. From this point on, the oil is transferred to tankers and shipped 1,300 km to Manaus and other Northeastern Brazilian states. This transportation involves considerable risks due to the dynamical aspects of the Amazon River. In the case of oil spills, it is very important to have timely and appropriate responses. For this sake, information for monitoring, contingency plans, and risk analysis is crucial. With the objective to provide information to support the decision processes, the Potential Impacts in the Transportation of Natural Gas and Oil in the Amazon River (Piatam) Project collected and studied various environmental, socioeconomic and ecological aspects of the transportation route in its first phase. Piatam is an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and multi-spatial research project. Due to the importance of the project to sponsors, it is highly demanding for them. Thus, to deal with all these complexities the project had to put strong emphasis on management aspects. Petrobras. In addition, basic and applied interdisciplinary research will be developed.