The Global Coordination Test is a social exercise that promotes a controlled nighttime blackout (off / on) for 5 minutes. It engages and organizes the manual switching off of public lighting, shops, and lights at homes in a given region on the date and time set by the app.
This blackout is captured by satellite images that observe the region at that moment. The analysis of the images is done by the app that calculates a "Coordination Score" for each region, comparing the night image of the lights on, before and during the test.
The Coordination Score
We created this new Score as the resulting average radiance product of light measured from VNP4601 instrument data. It has null values (zero) in areas where surface lighting was not detected and high values where there is electric light on.
To calculate the score we simply measure the difference in radiance between the test day and the previous days, every time a location has a test schedule in our app.
The rationale of this proposal is that the lack of coordination means a lack of information or a lack of cooperation in following a strict social protocol. In addition, we believe that we can measure this through images asking to turn off the lights at night without any damage, being an inverse movement unviable.
The path of lights will provide important information to identify the engagement of the population, commerce, and city halls in isolation measures, revealing important social isolation data in epidemiological studies and for the definition of public policies.
The main utility of the Global Coordination app will be demonstrated in public emergency crises, such as in an epidemiological outbreak involving COVID-19, or in the face of other acts of nature that may require a lockdown. Regions with a high "Coordination Score" and which have simulated the test several times before, will have better results during a lockdown.
To simulate a Global Coordination test, the preparations demand low cost. Primarily of coordination and communication promoted for the app to reach its audience in each candidate region to receive a "Coordination Score". To develop the app, we need to analyze satellite images that already exist and analyze the date and time when each satellite can provide images of a specific region at night (open data). The computing infrastructure of the cloud required to run the app is small and can be obtained with small incentives.
This project was inspired by the lack of empathy that we see during a difficult times in cities fighting the COVID-19 with severe lockdown situations. We are looking for a mix of old and new technologies that combined can connect and include all the people, without social and economical biases, nor internet use to be achieved.
When using the app, people will send a message of desire and encouragement to government officials to conduct a simulation of a Global Coordination test in their region. The date and time set for the synchronized movement between government and society are suggested by the app's recommendation system (which will take into account the date and time that the night photo of the region can be taken by one of the satellites that observe that region ).
Every month, the app renews the suggested date and calls users in the region for a new attempt. Government officials sensitized to the proposal and who accept the simulation, inform on their social networks that they will carry out the Global Coordination movement on the chosen date and time, and promote a jump in the "Coordination Score".
Having identified the support of the local government on social networks, the app intensifies information for users in the region, with links to share and publicize the scheduled time for simulation supported by government officials, in the expectation that all television and radio channels broadcast the test via controlled blackout.
The Global Coordination app will help the government with an actionable tool in small, medium, and large regions on the planet. The data detected remotely by satellites reveals in photos, how much the populations are acting in a coordinated way. It's an innovative way to create actionable information for future political decisions, in the definition of health protocols and in the analysis of the population's adherence to the lockdown.