SDGs and COVID-19

This challenge invites you to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by looking at the current and ongoing change in the monitoring indicators of the UN SDGs using Earth observation/remote sensing and global Earth system model-derived analysis products.

An agile approach for better SDGs progress via empirical study of Covid-19 impacts on Air Pollution

Summary

An integrated mobile application that offers a variety of features mainly tracking COVID-19 related impacts on the progress towards achieving SDG 3 through well-developed techniques. The application offers accustomed map features with accessibility to order products safely from home, but above all, it provides a map that monitors air pollution and compares the present levels of mortality rate with a reference baseline from the previous years to raise awareness of users using a scientific basis.

How We Addressed This Challenge

            Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), known to cause 2019-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has sparked alarm worldwide. Nationwide lockdown is being adopted to stop public transport, keep people at their homes and out of their work, and maintain social distancing. The temporary halt affects the social, economic, and environmental aspects of everyday life. By the same token, the halt leaves a significant impact on the progress of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this solution, SDG 3, Health and Well Being, is addressed with Target 3.9, By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination. Indicator 3.9.1, Mortality rate attributed to household and ambient air pollution, is used to investigate an integrated picture of the impact of COVID-19 on the progress of the above-mentioned SDG.

            First of all, our solution offers the user an ordinary Maps application in addition to adding some features in this Map including ordering different products from restaurants, cafés, and bakeries in the surroundings of the user safely from home. Moreover, and most importantly, our solution addresses the challenge through a meticulous map that shows empirical evidence using data from NASA and JAXA including:

- Various types of atmospheric gases causing ambient air pollution with their percentages

- The mortality rate due to air pollution (with a reference baseline from the previous years)

           Also, this map includes the "Info and updates" tab which provides and contains info, and data analyzed by us to show the progress of the SDG with a scientific base with a simple approach for the users to understand. Additionally, given within this info, updates provided raise the awareness about dealing with the SDG during and after the lockdown i.e. possible innovative solutions that may be applied in the future to reduce air pollution or human activities that would help in achieving the sustainable development goal.

            Furthermore, "Progress Tracker" is presented containing the progress of the SDG with simple infographics and personal tracker for the user to track his progress in keeping the environment clean, doing the good human activities, etc. For further enhancement, the application encompasses not only a survey on how citizens cope with the spreading coronavirus relating to the SDG but also the accessibility for users to donate easily for United Nations or its agencies or local agencies.

            Finally, it could be demonstrated through the addressing of such challenge by our solution that the temporary slashed down global air pollution as a result of COVID-19 restrictions are expected to stimulate the researchers, policymakers and governments for the judicious use of resources; thereby our solution gives the rise to reduce the global emissions, and maintain their economies to keep up the progress of SDG 3.

How We Developed This Project

             After a deep analysis done by the team on the whole challenges through online meetings and discussions, it was decided to work on the "SDGs and Covid-19" challenge considering different aspects and how it will be addressed. The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries. By analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on the environment, it was declared that it is crucial to work on the SDGs and use the impact of COVID-19 to increase the awareness of people about keeping the environment safe. 

             After we brainstormed ideas about what our solution will be, we decided to make a mobile application to keep the progress of the sustainable development goal number three. The application that we developed is an android one, that is used to keep track of the progress of the sustainable development goal 3. This application was developed in the android studio integrated development environment. When it comes to the user interface, we used the flutter software that was helpful for us to create good interfaces. In addition, the code source of the application was mainly written in Java and Dart. 

               The data, of both the rate of mortality and the air pollution percentages, we used a massive part that was collected early this year (2020). The other part of these data was taken from the previous years. This part of the data helped us to have a big picture of the evolution of the percentages and how the spread of   SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19. The data that we implement is mainly taken from the web sites of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration known as NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency known as JAXA. The data that we collected was included in the mobile application in a way that will give a clear idea about what the situation is.

               The main problem faced by our team is the shortage of time to develop a well-developed prototype however our team has achieved a great achievement by being a multi-nationality team and managing the intense work on this challenge even we are a thousand miles away.

Project Demo

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Sf52Hkrnc7ZA6J3OIqFZlHtewom66vyy

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18Fs858E26BFIYwsYDJlLXIR0Bz0a11Nd

Data & Resources

Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)

Himawari 8

Coperenicus Sentinel-5P satellite

Tags
#airquality #SDG3 #HealthandWellbeing #MobileApp
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.