SOUTH SQUAD - Space Apps Challenge

SOUTH SQUAD| Quiet Planet

Awards & Nominations

SOUTH SQUAD has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Finalist

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.

Co-vida: simulate scenarios that help societies to make more informed decisions at a time of crisis

Summary

Co-vida presents the vast amount of valuable satellite data connected with information from local news in an easy-to-understand display. This way, everyone has access to great information giving an overall panorama of action and reaction in Earth's systems. Further, the prediction option illustrates different scenarios based on decision taking. We want to reflect the urgent need to find ways to get good environmental results but without compromising social and economic aspects.

How We Addressed This Challenge

It is clear that the Covid-19 epidemic affected every region of the world in several ways. But even before the epidemic, many environmental and social problems already existed. As the virus hits human societies, many of these world-wide problems are and will be enhanced. What we aim with our Project is to show the evidence that would support a more sustainable approach to solving problems. If we compare the world before, during and after the outbreak, the user may come to interesting conclusions. For example, while the quarantines are associated with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, these decisions have inflicted economic and social shocks as global production, consumption and employment levels dropped greatly. We invite the user to think about causes and consequences and analyze the correlation between the environment, societies and the economy while going through an epidemic or any other major crisis.

We used satellite information from NASA and other space agencies to develop our project, and based on that, we found which social measures were linked to those visible changes. For example, we focused on developing a mockup of the simulator only showing the changes in Argentina because of limited time, and we saw, for example the drop in emissions connected to transport which clearly reflected the lockdown patterns. Co-vida is a resource that any person could use to find solutions to the issues created by COVID-19 that not only focuses on the economic aspects, but tries to find an equilibrium between environmental awareness and social stability.

As Einstein said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. In order to properly manage an outbreak in a future scenario, we need real change towards a sustainable society that doesn't allow the extreme problems we are facing today. As Hans Bruyninckx, the EEA Executive Director states, “ The EEA’s data shows an accurate picture of the drop in air pollution, especially due to reduced traffic in cities. However, addressing long-term air quality problems requires ambitious policies and forward-looking investments. As such, the current crisis and its multiple impacts on our society work against what we are trying to achieve, which is a just and well-managed transition towards a resilient and sustainable society.” We’ve got evidence from satellites and science, we've got thousands of good ideas in the world, the possibility of change is in our hands and it can be achieved through cooperation. Co-vida is a tool to co-create balanced solutions. So that the next time we have to face a global pandemic or a major event that forces us to make tough choices; such choices are made more efficiently and more empathically.

How We Developed This Project

As we are in our houses in quarantine we can't help but think about all the economic and social changes we are going through not only in our country but around the world, and how all these changes will impact the environment and our societies. We are aware of the urgent need to find a balance between economic growth and environmental preservation; and in order to do that we need to be well informed and aware about how political and social measures affect the environment. COVID-19 has evidenced once again how these issues are intrinsically connected. Space data was fundamental in order to develop our idea. Satellite images allowed us to create a practical tool for users to visualize the impact of the Covid-19 on local environment, economies and social order.

How did we make it possible

Co-vida is an interactive platform which allows users to play or simulate different scenarios in which the virus can impact on a population and the local environment based on real data acquired from different digital pages such as NASA, JAXA, ESA and local newspapers and communication media.

Resources used

For the development of the user interface we used Adobe XD for a quick and versatile mockup free of any pre-established platform on the internet. Our goal is to deliver an app that can communicate very complex information in an intuitive way so that the users are not overwhelmed by it. Therefore, we decided to go with a bright and friendly pallet of colors with big buttons and simple commands. Associated we also used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create clear images and details such as buttons, shapes and more, to give the app a unique visual profile. For our goal of a synthetic platform for all types of users these 3 apps became very useful.

The programs used for the design of the project include:

NODE.js, to make the mixture between Html, JavaScript and CSS possible and therefore, run the local host creator to display images from open sources from NASA and NASA's partner agencies.

Visual Studio Code (a code editor that allows to use Html, CSS, JavaScript, C+, among others to edit the code and create a function to download the images from the sources) with the use of the API Key (DEMO_KEY), as an extension, and display them in a local host for its visualization.

GIT, a program that combined with the code editor, will help the user to notice his mistakes and, in some cases, correct them to allow the program to be run correctly.

REACT, a JavaScript framework, with its open code allows the user to create a local host for its interface design and display of data, previously edited and adapted.

For communication, we used Zoom, Google Meetings and WhatsApp, to get us all ”on the same page “ as we moved forward in the project.

To make our project known we signed up on Twitter and Instagram, using them as a way of promotion and public knowledge.

In regards to the Analysis of Satellite metadata and images we have used:

ArcGIS, this program was used with the objective of merging the NetCDF, which is a refined version of the metadata obtained by the satellite, into a rasterized image with the different values for each zone/country. In addition, we used Panoply in order to rasterize the Hierarchical Data Format Release 5 (HE5) into a map format. Finally, we used Rstudio and R programming languages in order to convert csv data into NetCDF data.

How to use it?

The simulator collects data on what the users do inside the platform, helping us to improve the app by learning how our users operate Co-vida. By logging in with a username, the app saves the simulations and the users can decide to upload the information found into a collective forum, sharing results so that others can access it in a quicker way. The objective always is to provide fast information to everyone.

Steps:

After logging to the app, you have to choose where your simulation will take place. You can make different simulations in different countries, always saving your work so you can see it and share it later.

After selecting the country, you can now access a variety of measures to shape your simulation. Your actions can vary from economic sanctions, confinement periods and intensities, political decisions, ways of circulation and much more. All variables are based on decisions taken by governments and industries in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19. By modifying them, the app can simulate different scenarios and their consequences.

The results of each simulation will be divided into two big sections: the impact over the local environment and the impact over the social and economic status. It is clear that all measures that limit the industrial footprint will create a positive reaction over the environment but that may bring negative impacts over the society. Quarantine can affect people mentally and physically in different ways. It can create recession in weak economies with huge debts and can force lower class families to fall under the line of poverty due to lack of jobs and payments. On the other hand, the environment can benefit from the reduction of gas emissions.

All the results have links to news webpages where users can access information depending on the topic they are searching for. Using topic searching, keywords and links the app can relate the results to different sources.

In this way users will have to decide because there is not a correct answer to solve all problems. We want the users to understand that several measures can bring different reactions and that effective solutions involve international cooperation, that’s why the data from others is useful because it can be used to compare and learn how different measures can bring different results.

Design process

The following images show the design process from which we achieved the final product.

https://images.spaceappschallenge.org/stream-images/pqKiZ7LUiqOc8HbmQSwf1WE3-Jg=/7526/width-800/

Board map to see how the app would work, types of information and user experience.

https://images.spaceappschallenge.org/stream-images/xuChaBL1mrHFwmquSBbJWclTYok=/7528/width-800/

Possible initial pages for the presentation of the app to the users including all the info associated to the Space challenge app hackathon.

https://images.spaceappschallenge.org/stream-images/nvvohwlD4Dcxrx9w1rQxRYqER-I=/7527/width-800/

Visual grid of the prototype of the different pages and button links with their corresponding actions that trigger different results.

https://images.spaceappschallenge.org/stream-images/7m1wjn_f4GDE1iUj0c4p7dK_Ztg=/7529/width-800/

We had some difficulties regarding the data that we needed to develop our mockup. We focused on Argentina to show all the consequences of this type of coronavirus, but when it came to looking for satellites that provided that information, it was quite complicated to find them. Many of the resources provided did not have up to date information about South America so that made our task more complex, or we could not find detailed data about certain emissions in opposition to excessive details about other sources. However, as synergy was really needed in order to develop an effective idea, with the help of mentors from the rocket chat we were able to overcome those difficulties. They helped us find information about current carbon dioxide emissions by showing us other satellites and sites that could provide that information.