Government provides new contents on the site "Feeling and Interpreting the Azores Environment - siaram.azores.gov.pt"
The Regional Secretariat for the Environment and the Sea, through the SIARAM site - Feeling and Interpreting the Azores Environment, continues to increase its multimedia contents on the Region's environments with educational and promotional purposes. This projects aims to be an easy access and dissemination tool that is primarily targeted at the school community.
From this date, SIARAM provides new multimedia content, videos, audios and photos at http://siaram.azores.gov.pt/_novos-conteudos.html in the following themes:
In the area of cultural heritage, it provides contents on Azorean Windmills that remain landmarks of the Azorean landscape. In addition to the images depicting windmills from Graciosa, this work also features video testimonials from historian Jorge Cunha, Graciosa, and architect Luís Bettencourt, Terceira.
With the collaboration of the Azores Institute of Culture, the book “Moinhos de Vento dos Açores – Novo Papel na Sociedade Contemporânea” (Azorean Windmills - New Role in Contemporary Society) will be available in this space as well as sub-page featuring the "Inventário dos Moinhos de Vento dos Açores - Grupo Central" ("Inventory of Azorean Windmills - Central Group), designed by architect Luís Bettencourt. Both works were published by the Azores Institute of Culture in 2008.
The Azores are a region with abundant microbial life either in the sea, volcanoes or caves. In this update, one can see a part of life that does not appear to the naked eye which, in some circumstances, corresponds to the first life forms on planet Earth. This work features images, texts and videos on microbial ecology made by the researchers who conducted pioneering projects in the Azores. This area also provides contents on the microorganisms living in hot springs and hydrothermal vents as well as on the bacterial flora in Azorean Caves.
The area dedicated to Azorean interpretation centres provides multimedia contents on the Furnas Monitoring and Research Centre, Azores Bullfinch Environmental Centre, Praia Hydroelectric Museum - Vila Franca do Campo Museum Centre and Faial Botanical Garden, with special emphasis to the Orchidarium, the Seed Bank and the Ilídio Botelho Gonçalves Herbarium.
With regard to the wetlands on São Miguel, the site now provides images on the Congro and Nenúfares Lakes, Areeiro Lake and São Brás Lake.
From now on, visitors will have the opportunity to understand how the water collection process works on Graciosa, an initiative supported by the Graciosa Town Hall. Moreover, visitors may learn how wind power is generated in the Azores in a joint initiative with EEG- Empresa de Electricidade e Gáz and Isa-GRUPO EDA.
The area of volcanism provides contents on the Congro Crater Lake, which is one of the more important areas in term of seismic activity and the habitat of Crested Newts, one of the two amphibian species found in the Azores. It is also available, in this area, the book "Lagoas do Congro e dos Nenúfares - Proposta de Recuperação e Gestão da Cratera” (Congro and Nenúfares Lakes - Crater Recovery and Management) by Malgorzata Pietrzak. The work published by the Amigos dos Açores Ecological Association in 2010.