Agnes FERNANDES is a geographer currently working as a researcher at IPT, a technological research institute located in the city of São Paulo. Her previous research was related to disaster prevention projects in urban areas, with a focus on geotechnical risk control in slums and mountainous regions. This also included engineering-geology maps applied to urban development and risk prevention associated with land use. She presented the paper 'Rain Induced Landslides in Serra do Mar - Cubatao' at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II) in Istanbul. Recently, she has started to study environmental education focusing on urban environments. She is pursuing a doctoral degree in anthropo-geograph at the University of São Paulo and has participated in a training course in Japan on the topic of science and technology for disaster prevention.