Isaque Carvalho Borges
First winner from Brazil in The Earth Prize (Central & South America category), at age 16 — stated in The Earth Prize’s 2025 winner communications.
What they built
Founded EcoAção Brasil, an independent research initiative that uses machine learning and satellite imagery to identify and quantify intra-urban heat islands (micro-UHIs) inside cities. Starting in May 2024 at age 16, Borges developed the open-source 'Tocantins Framework' — a Random Forest-based model that ingests 40 years of Landsat satellite data to detect thermal anomalies and score them by severity and spatial impact. The tool tells urban planners exactly which city blocks are dangerously overheated and which interventions (reforestation, green roofs, permeable pavements) will deliver the greatest cooling effect. EcoAção Brasil won the $12,500 Central & South America prize at The Earth Prize 2025 and is being piloted with the government of Palmas, Tocantins, free of charge.
View Project