Quiet Planet

The COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting social distancing recommendations and related restrictions have led to numerous short-term changes in economic and social activity around the world, all of which may have impacts on our environment. Your challenge is to use space-based data to document the local to global environmental changes caused by COVID-19 and the associated societal responses.

Restored

Summary

This project addresses the global changes and maintaining them after quarantine is over. The worldwide disruption caused by the COVID-19 has resulted in numerous impacts on the environment and climate. In China, lockdowns and other measures resulted in 25% decrease in co2 emissions. In Venice, the water in the trenches cleared (spoiler alert: it's not all rainbows and sunshine since it may increase wildfires and plastic pollution).

How We Addressed This Challenge
  • Air quality

Reducing carbon pollutants would reduce both climate change and COVID-19 risks; luckily, due to the coronavirus crisis, many regions have seen air pollution decline. (However, the forms of air emissions which constitute significant threats to COVID-19 are still not clear.). CREA announced that quarantines and travel bans, culminated in a 25% decrease in carbon emissions in China. China emitted approximately 200 million less metric tons of carbon dioxide during the first month of the quarantine (because of reduced air traffic, oil production and coal consumption). In addition, The European Space Agency reported a reduction in n2o emissions from vehicles , power plants and manufacturers in northern Italy. Air pollution is a major problem, but now it is reducing. To maintain this we can follow these steps

  1. Buying a car that has greater fuel efficiency.
  2. Buying fewer things that are manufactured using fossil fuels.
  3. Riding a bike or walking instead of driving.
  4. Turning off lights and appliances when they are not in use.
  5. Using energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.
  6. Taking a bus or carpooling.
  • Water bodies

Chlorinated plastic can discharge destructive synthetic compounds into the encompassing soil, which would then be able to saturate groundwater or other encompassing water sources and furthermore the biological system of the world. In Venice, the water in the canals cleared and experienced greater water flow and visibility of fish. The Venice mayor's office clarified that the increase in water clarity was due to the settling of sediment that is disturbed by boat traffic and mentioned the decrease in air pollution along the waterways. This can make genuine damage the species that drink the water.  As a consequence of the widespread usage of synthetic face masks and plastic gloves, a considerable portion of these have been deposited in water bodies, contributing to the plastic waste burden we were trying to stop. To reduce plastic pollution 

 We may use reusable masks that we can make using clean socks or  by sewing cloth or fabric. In which we rinse them properly, at home. Exceptions can be made for disposable masks if they were absolutely required in public spaces due to the lack of one's reusable mask.

  •   Wild fires

Common causes of wildfires include lightning, human carelessness, volcano eruption, etc. Heat waves, droughts, and cyclical climate changes can also have a dramatic effect on the risk of wildfires. Planning for prescribed burns is always challenging yet it is particularly so in 2020. Many fire organizations are pushing forward with these activities, yet with the additional weight of social distancing  and expanded regard for dealing with the smoke that could intensify the states of individuals with Covid-19. Others are holding off.  These are the steps we should follow to help control wild fires during this pandemic

  1. The most important step is to make and keep up a solid space around homes. 
  2. To put it plainly, ensure rooftops and canals are liberated from dead leaves.
  3.  Expel branches that overhang the rooftop, trim bushes close to windows and ensure no heaps of flammable materials like wood or kindling are around that could touch off from a coal. 
  4. It's additionally essential to expel dead vegetation, open level and vertical space among plants and cut tall grass inside 100 feet of a home.




How We Developed This Project


We have noticed a lot of improvements that happened lately in the air quality because of quartine. We hoped that these developments will continue occurring after quartine. (unfortunately, there were other loses in other aspects such as wildfires and the increase of plastic pollution in water. It would be preferred because people changed willingly instead of being forced (by quarantine). 

Our  approach to developing this project is by properly researching our topics through trustworthy websites (organized by NASA, ISRO, ESA, SpaceX, etc.)


Tags
#supportfirefighters #reusablemasks #saveearth #earthisreviving #stopplasticpollution #nomoreairpollution
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.