Our project quantifies and graphs levels of luminescence at night to determine the economic impact COVID-19 has had and displays the levels of carbon monoxide (CO) to determine how the air quality of several cities worldwide has changed in quality. The main focus of our project was to analyze the effects of COVID-19 on achieving SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. By graphing the change in economical and environmental factors over the course of the lockdown, especially when compared to levels present before the lockdown, we determined the extent to which COVID-19 has affected the progress of SDG 11.
Focusing on SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, we decided to explore the impacts of COVID-19 by focusing on two indicators of urban development: how natural disasters like COVID-19 impact the economy, and what effect they have on the environment. With this in mind, we first began to search for ways that changes in the economy are reflected in data obtained from space, and we discovered that nighttime light can be used as a valuable indicator of economic activity. We sought to find and analyze pictures of major cities, both before and after they were affected by COVID-19. To do this, we searched a variety of databases, considering taking the average of multiple NASA Worldview images; eventually, we settled on using an API to gather images of city night light given specific coordinates and dates. Using this information, we found an association between COVID-19 and decreased nightlight, implying a possible indirect decrease in consumption, thus relating to GDP. We were also focused on finding out how air quality was impacted by the coronavirus. We discovered that air quality is dependent on the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the atmosphere. We found data for a few major cities and investigated the changes in CO and NO2 levels before, during, and after the quarantine. Our next step was to display these changes in the form of graphs to better compare them. We observed that during the pandemic, air quality increased, since both CO and NO2 levels decreased.
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Earth Observation Group, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI): The VIIRS DNB Nighttime Lights Data, www.ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/viirs/download_dnb_composites.html.
AirNow Department of State, gispub.epa.gov/airnow/index.html?tab=3.
NASA GSFC, airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
IASI-FT, iasi-ft.eu/covid-19/east-usa-air-pollution/.