An Integrated Assessment

Your challenge is to integrate various Earth Observation-derived features with available socio-economic data in order to discover or enhance our understanding of COVID-19 impacts.

Science Drops

Summary

Analyzing the data provided, we realized the positive impact that the abrupt behavior change brought about by the pandemic brought to environmental indicators. After this discovery, there is no point in "returning to normal" and restoring production in the same harmful way. However, building new processes depends on the massive adhesion of society: governments, companies and citizens. We believe that the best way to build awareness is through accessible scientific dissemination coupled with social engagement and for this reason, we have created a platform that centralizes various data in a simplified way and we want to spread over social media.

How We Addressed This Challenge

When we realize that a change as localized in time as quarantines around the world has been able to generate an obviously positive change in environmental indicators, we cannot ignore this signal. We know that scientific studies, when well publicized, can lead to major changes, more and as was the case with studies on the effect of CFC on the ozone layer and the importance of signing the Montreal Protocol to replace these harmful substances. Then used the resources made available by NASA, more precisely from the Earth Observatory, where we collected information on environmental impacts in different places in the world, such as some regions of the USA, India, Brazil, to then analyze them and see if we really were going the right way. In addition, we used other resources made available by NASA, such as the global viewer COVID-19 from the Center for Data and Socioeconomic Applications (SEDAC) to analyze the scenarios, which helped us a lot to prove that the data we were investigating was correct. When we talk about the effect of habits adopted due to the pandemic, we address even broader and more profound changes at a time when the world is reorganizing. Therefore, we believe that the idea of ​​guiding, based on reliable and accessible data, the construction of these new ways of producing, consuming and relating, has a great potential to influence decision makers at different levels, reaching the global impact on mitigating climate change.

How We Developed This Project

We started by thinking about the importance of bringing science into people's daily lives, especially in a context as new and uncertain as that of the pandemic. Bearing in mind that we wanted to bring the data closer to people, we looked at the data. When we perceive the positive environmental impacts of the lockdown process, we believe it is essential to give more publicity to this information, guiding a broad reflection on our ways of producing, consuming and relating. In our prototype, we prioritize infographics and geolocalized information so that people can understand in a simple and direct way the importance of the changes that have happened in recent times.

Data & Resources

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4810

https://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/slider/pandemic-and-after-los-angeles-2015-2019-versus-2020

https://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/

https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mapping/popest/covid-19/

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders/covid-19

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/pathfinders/health-and-air-quality-data-pathfinder

https://diariodamanha.com/noticias/meio-ambiente-e-beneficiado-pelo-isolamento-social-mas-por-pouco-tempo/

https://gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br/saude/noticia/2020/04/analise-de-imagens-de-satelite-indica-reducao-de-poluicao-no-brasil-com-quarentena-ck8nefo8n01pd01o5mu30tf8p.html

https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/internacional/noticia/2020-04/como-pandemia-do-coronavirus-faz-terra-tremer-menos

https://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/no2

http://aqicn.org/city/

https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/story/breath-fresh-air

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/life-expectancy

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/health/sources

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/health

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/air

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MODAL2_M_AER_OD

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps?eocn=topnav&eoci=globalmaps

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/38685/the-ozone-layer-if-cfcs-hadnt-been-banned

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144239/ozone-hole-is-big-but-tempered-by-cfc-reductions

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2014/04/15/sampling-the-global-ocean-and-a-note-on-ocean-acidification/

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84382/un-panel-ozone-layer-on-the-road-to-recovery

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/38835/antarctic-ozone-hole-1979-to-2008

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146741/nitrogen-dioxide-levels-rebound-in-china

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146596/airborne-particle-levels-plummet-in-northern-india

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2020/03/05/how-the-coronavirus-is-and-is-not-affecting-the-environment/

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-monitors-environmental-signals-from-global-response-to-covid-19

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2020/03/05/how-the-coronavirus-is-and-is-not-affecting-the-environment/

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-probes-environment-covid-19-impacts-possible-links

Tags
#Science Drops #Pollution #Air quality #Environmental impact #Covid-19
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.