Vida de Ecosistemas Terrestres

The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) is advancing its commitment to sustainability and integrated water resource management through the project “ESPOL Ecohydrology Demonstration Site: Lakes and Albarradas,” an initiative aimed at obtaining official recognition as an Ecohydrology Demonstration Site from UNESCO.

The 34th edition of ESPOL Divulga’s “Chela Científica” focused on the theme “The Hidden Power of the Tropical Dry Forest” and featured Maribel Aguilar, a professor and researcher at FICT and CIPAT.

CIPAT, in collaboration with FICT, organized the “Hidrogeodía 2026” academic program, enhancing training in ecohydrology and sustainable water management through hands-on activities in the La Prosperina Protected Forest and other areas of the ESPOL Gustavo Galindo campus.

The Faculty of Earth Geosciences Engineering at ESPOL participated in the Ecuadorian Commission for UNESCO Geoparks in Quito, presenting updates on geopark projects and strengthening collaboration among academia, the public sector, and international organizations.

From January 28 to 31, 2026, researchers from the Center for Research and Applied Projects in Earth Sciences and professors from The Faculty of Earth Sciences Engineering at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral held a training session in Francisco de Orellana as part of a project aimed at strengthening local capacities to address the impacts of illegal mining.

ESPOL’s FICT held the academic talk ‘Exploring the Amazon from Space: GIS and Remote Sensing in University Education,’ aimed at strengthening academic training through the use of geospatial tools. During the event, a scientific article analyzing the expansion of illegal mining in Zamora Chinchipe was presented, highlighting the use of GIS and remote sensing—developed by the faculty of ingenieria en...—to understand territorial dynamics, support decision-making, and prevent environmental and social impacts in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The UNESCO Chair in Geosciences Applied to Sustainable Development at ESPOL promoted the value of kamanchaka, coastal fog that brings moisture to the Prosperina Protected Forest, sustaining biodiversity and ecological processes in dry areas through natural water collection.

The project “Monitoring of soil health bioindicators in syntropic agroforestry food systems in the Amazon” was approved and funded by CNPq and ACTO in the Pro-Amazonia call for proposals. The initiative, led by UFRA with the participation of ESPOL, will integrate GIS and remote sensing to analyze and monitor soil health. ESPOL's participation is through Ph.D. Andrés Velástegui, strengthening international scientific cooperation and the generation of key information for the sustainable management of the Amazon region.

FICT researcher Divar Castro Rodas, M.Sc., received the award for Best Oral Presentation at The 2nd International Electronic Conference on Land, organized by MDPI Land magazine. His work presented a comparative analysis of supervised classification algorithms applied to land use and land cover in Guayaquil, highlighting the scientific contribution of FICT and ESPOL in the international academic arena.