Research stay at Universität Bonn, Institut für Landtechnik

Dimaghi Schwamback had been enrolled at Lund University (Sweden) and the University of São Paulo (Brazil) during his double degree PhD studies. Dimaghi grew up on a farm near Ibituba, a tiny village with 500 inhabitants located in the state of Espírito Santo - Brazil. Surrounded by incredible nature, fell in love with water and agriculture. Later, Dimaghi finished his bachelor’s in environmental engineering, and a master’s degree in Hydraulics and Sanitation Engineering before starting his PhD studies. In 2016, he started his studies with land cover, erosion, and rural hydrology. Besides professional aptitude, Dimaghi is deeply passionate about cultivating flowers, biking rides, and admiring the simple beauty of a sunset.

During the last 4 years, Dimaghi focused on providing a better understanding of how changes in land use and climate influence water fluxes and erosion in agricultural areas. To achieve this goal, he had three main goals:
(i) Development of low-cost solutions for runoff and soil water content monitoring;
(ii) Evaluation of the current trend and differences in surface runoff and soil loss in agricultural land uses (soybean, pasture, sugarcane);
(iii) Investigation of the interactions between soil-vegetation-atmosphere and their influence on soil loss and water balance components under scenarios of climate change.

This project is unique in its use of innovative low-cost equipment developed by Dimaghi for measuring runoff and soil moisture with real-time data collection. He has also a long journey investigating the effects of climate change on agriculture. The analysis indicated a rise in erosion between 4.9% and 7.6% up to the end of the century, leading to losses of soil nutrients. Climate change will also interfere with the root water uptake, meaning higher water demands from the agriculture sector, which is already the largest worldwide water consumer.

Dimaghi is simultaneously addressing UN Sustainable Development Goal #09 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) by the development of low-cost environment sensors, Goal #13 (climate action) by predicting climate change impact on agriculture and erosion, Goal #06 (clean water and sanitation) by ensuring availability and management of water in agriculture, Goal #15 (life on land) by identifying driver to land degradation on tropical zones, and Goal #02 (zero hunger) by connecting knowledge on soil-water-climate, it ensures sustainable agriculture.

Dimaghi convinced the jury with his inter- and transdisciplinary expertise and his pursuit of a multifunctional transfer of his work into operational application in hydrology, especially in the development of low-cost sensors.